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U S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION& WELFARE

OFFICE OF EDUCATIONTHIS DOCUMENT PAS BEEN REPRODUCESEXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM ENE PERSON OFFORGANIZATION ORIGINATING POINTS OfVIEW DR OPINIONS STATES CO Noi NECESSAPILY REPRESENT OFF.CIA1. OFFICE OF EDOCATION POSIT ON CF pouc,

Educationfor the Urban

Disadvantaged:from Preschool

to Employment

A Statementon National Policy

by the Research and Policy Committeeof the Committee for Economic Development

March 1971

1

Single Copy ... $1.50Printed in U.S.A.First Printing March 197!Design: linty CarterPhotographs: George Zirnhcl for Fdocational Facilities 1 abs inc. (pp. 22 and 72);

Joe Monroe for 1 hc Ford Foundation (p. 48): U. Arrn.trczng Roberts (p.58).Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 75-153374

Committee for Economic Development477 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022

2

ContentsFOREWORD 7

1. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ..... ....... 9A Broad Attack on Poverty . 11

Seven Imperatives for the Schools .. .13Summary of Recommendations . 16

2. ENVIRONMENT AND THE SUCCESS OF THE SCHOOL 23Environment and Expectations . .. 25Racial Mix and Quality of Education . .. 27The Classroom Environment . .. 29

3. PRES('HOOLING AND THE ACHIEVEMENT OF EQUALITY 33The Promise of Preschool Education . 34Presehooling and Lih.racy . . 35Acquiring the &sic Sxitls , . .37

4, FUNCTIONAL EDUCATION FOR CAREERS 39Making Vocalional.l (:Inical Education Relevant ... 41The School-Joh Linkage .43E.gher Education Oppor:unities . 45

5. TEACHERS, INSTRUCTIONAL SYSTEMS, AND FACILITIES 49Goals acrd Reward+ , 50Training and Technology 51Sites and Facilities ... 55

6. NEW CONCEPTS OF ACCOUNTABILITYLITY AND CONTROL 59increasing Local Parficipation ... 62Developing A h( rounive In.tructional Pancrns 65

7. EQUALIZING SCHOOL. RESOURCES 677 he High COWS. 91 Urban Education ...The Overburdened Tax Bt15C 69Aid o)Schools.. Unequal and tif isihrecied . .71Slate Re5ponsibilily for Schooling . .72

8. RESEARCH, DES ELOPMENT, AND APPLICATION 75Full ale Models for . . .

MEMORANDA OF COMMENT, RESERVATION, OR DISSENT 80

APPENDICES 83

3

THE RESPONSIBILITY FORCED STATEMENTS ON NATIONAL POLICY

This statement has been approved for publication as a statement of the Researchand Policy Committee by the members of that Committee and its drafting subcommittee, subject to individual dissents or reservations noted herein. Thetrustees who are responsible for this statement are listed on the opposite page.Company associations are incluied for identification only; tho companies donot share in the responsibility borne by the individuals.

The 11'.tsearch and Policy Committee is directed by CED's bylaws to:

"Initiate studies into the principles of business policy and of Public policywhich will foster the full contribution by industry and commerce to the attain-ment and maintenance of high and secure standards of living for p,eoptc in allwalks of life through maximum employment and high productivity in thedomestic economy."

The bylaws emphasize that:

"All research is to be thoroughly objective in character, ,aid the approachin each instance is to be ft om the standi,oint of the general welfare and notfrom that of any special political or economic group."

The Research and Policy Committee is composed of 50 Trustees from amongthe 200 businessmen and educators who comprise the Committee for EconomicDevelopment. If is aided by a Research Advisory Boatd of leading economists,a small permanent Research Staff, and by advisors ch isen for their competencein the ficld being considered.

Each Szatement on National Policy is preceded by discussions, n-ectings,and exchanges of memoranda, often stretching over many months. The researchis undertaken by a subcommittee, with its advisors, and the full Research andPolicy Committee participates in the drafting of endings and recommendations.

Except for the members of the Research and Policy Committee and theresponsible subcommittee, the recommendations presented herein are notnecessarily endorsed by other Trustees or by the advisors, contributors, staffmembers, or others assoe::ted aith CED.

The Research and Pol.:y Committee offers ihe:;e Statements cm NationaiPolicy as an aid to clearer understanding of the steps to be taken in achievingsustained growth of the American economy. The Committee is not attemptingto pass on any pending specific legislative proposals; its purpose is to urgecareful consideration of the objectives set forth in the statement and of thebest means of accomplishing those objectives.

4.

4

RESEARCHAND POLICYCOMMITTEE

JERVIS J. BABBNew York, New York

aJOSEPH W. BARRPresidentAmerican Security and Trust Co.FREDERICK S. BEEBEChairman of the BoardNewsweek

S. CI AilK BEISEPresident (Retired)Bank of America N.T. 3: S.A.WILLIAM BENTONPublisher and ChairmanEncyciopaedia Ilritannica, Inc.

JOSEPH L. BLOCKChairman, Executive CommitteeInland Sreel Company

MARVIN BOWER, DirectorAtckinscy & Company, Inc.JOHN L. BURNS. PresidentJohn L. Burns and Comp rRAFAEL CARRION, JR.Chairman and PresicientBanco Popular do FUCTIO Rico

FSIILIO G. COLLADOEsecutit e Vice PresidentStandard Oil Company (Ncw Jersey)

ROBERT C. COSGPOVEChairman of 1..e BoardGreen Giant Company

MARION is FOL SOMRochmier, NC,/ York

WILLIASI C. FOSTERWashington. D.C.

JOHN SI. FOX. Chairmanltr fired Fruit Company

DAVID L. FRANCIS. ChairmanPrincess Coal Sacs Con,pany

Co ChairmenEMILIO '. COLLADO, Executive Vice PresidentStandard IA Company (New Jersey)PHILIP M. KLUTLNICK, ChairmanUrban Investmcnt and Development Company

Vice ChairmenHOWARD C. PETE:6EN, Chairman"The Fidelity Bank

JOHN L. BUKNS, PresidentJohn L. Burns and Company

JOHN A, PERKINSGraduate School of ManagementNorthwestern University

WILLIAM M. ROTE;San Francisco, California

VII LIAM H. FRANKLIN, PresidentCaterpillar Tractor Co.RICHARD C. GERSTENBERGVic,. Chairman of the BoardCamera: Motors CorporationELLISON HAZARDChairman and PresidentContinental Can Company, Inc.

H. J. HEINZ, II, ChairmanIf. J. Heinz Company

iLLIAM A. IIEWITT, ChairmanDeere & Company

OTANI ES KELLE:c, SR., PresidentKeller Construction Corporation

ROBERT J. KLEBERG. JR., PresidentKing Ranch. Inc.

PHILIP M. KLUTZNICK, ChairmanUrban Investment and Development Co.

RAl PH I AZARUS, ChairmanFederated Department Stores, Inc.

THOMAS B. McCABEChairman, Finance CommitteeScott Paper Company

GEORGE C. McGHEE'Nash's gt on.

RAYSION H. MUI FORD, ChairmanOwens Illinois Inc.

HOBERT R. NATHAN. PresidrntRobert R. Nathan As dciates, Inc,

At FREI)C. NEAL, PresidentCommittee for lc nomic Develop.nent

JOHN A. PERKINSGraduate School of ManagementNorthwestern University

HOWARD C. PETERSEN, Chairman1 he Fidelity Bark

SUBCOMMITTEE ON EDUCATIONFOR l'HE URBAN DISADVANTAGED

aSANF ORD S. ATWOOD, PresidentEmory UniversityDAVID L. FRANCIS, ChairmanPrincess Coal Sales CompanySTANTON 0, HALE. PresidentPacific STiatual The Insurance CompanyTERRANC E HANOI f), PresidentThe Pillsbury CompanyHARRY W. KNIGHT(-bairn-in of the BoardKnight, Gladieus A Smith Inc.H. TAI Bon MEAT)Chair.' art Finance CommitteeThe Mead CorporationJOHN F. MERRIAMChairmanExecutive Committee

NNs rthern Natural Gas Company

ISADORE NEWSIAN. II, PresidentCity Stores Company

IDANII I. PARKER, ChairmanThe Parker Pen Comp artsDEW111 J. PAUL, ChairmanBeneficial CorporationPE T FR G. PETERSONChairman of the BoardBell A Howell CompanyTHEODORE SCIII F SINGE R,ChatrmanAllied Stores CorporationI F ON SIIIMXIN. PresidentSimon and Sc?' aster. Inc.GRANT C. SIMSIONS, JR ChairmanSimmons Company

ONEY St FIN. SR , PartnerStein Roe A Farnham

National Econinny

Education and U han Development

Imprciternem Managementin Om ernment

International Economy

C. WREDE PETERSMEYERChairman and PresidentCorinthian Broadcasting Corporation

P111.1 IP D. REEDNew York, New Yoe.

MELVIN J. ROBERTS. ChairmanColorado National Bank of Denser

WILLIAM M. ROTHSan Francisco, California

ROBERT B. SEMPLE, PresidentBASE Wyandotte Corporation

S. ABBOT SMITHBoston, MassachLsens

rPHILIP SPORNNew York, New York

'ALLAN SPROVLKentficld, CaliforniaWILLIAM C. STOLK, ChairmanW. C. Stalk A Associates, Inc.

ALEXANDER L. STOTTVice President and ComptrollerAmerican Tclephdne& Telegraph Company

WAYNE E. THOMPSONSenior Vice PresidentDay ton.Fludson Corporation

H. C. TURNER, JR.Chairman, Executive Committeeturner Constractron Company

HERMAN L, WEISSVise Chairman of the BoardGeneral Electric Company

FRALAR B. WILDE, Chairman EmeritusConnecticut General Life Insurance Company

WALTER W. WILSON, PartnerMorgan Stanley & Co.

111E0DORE 0. YNT EMADepartmd of EconomicsOakland Uni, ersity

Chairman

JOHN L. BURNS. Presider':John L. Borns and Company

REV. I EON H. SULLIVANlion Baptist ChurchI IITODORE 0. YNTEMADepartment of ECOPOTiCSUaFlar d University

NoniT ruoce SfnrtheraJAMES E. ARE:, JR.Washington. D.C.J. S. Akt"FRYPublic Relations ManagerHumble Oil & Refining CompanySI11 FS S. SPECTORTenafly, New JerseyJACK F. Woo!), JR.El:eel:Ilse Co-DirectorNational Committee Against

Discrimination In Housing

I. Voted to approve the ,rvati. y stahement but submitted memoranda of comment. rescrsatkth.or dissent. or 11 khed lo tae ass,sciated with memoranda or others See pages 35-32

2. Did not pattk irate in the noting on this statement because of absence from the country.3. Nc n.trusiee member s take part in all discussions on the statement but do not vote on it.

5.

C.;

PROJECT DIRECTOR

STERLING M. McMURRINDean, Graduate SchoolUniversity of Utah

ADVISORS TO THE SUBCOMMITTEE

PAUL W, BRIGGSSuperintendentCinve land Public Schools

J. DOUGLAS BROWNProtest and Dean of the Faculty EmerirusPrinceton University

ALAN K. CAMPBELL, DeanThe Maxwell School of Citizenship

and Public AffairsSyracuse LInixersity

CARL J. DOLCEDean. School of EducatorNorth Carolina State l'etilersity

LYLE C. FETCH, PresidentInstitute of Public Administration

EDYTHE J. GAINESCommunity SuperintendentNew Yolk City Community School District ID

HAROLD B. GORESPresidentEducational Facilities I aborotories. Inc.

ROBERT L. GREENAssistant ProvostMichigan Stale University

KENNETH HASKINSDean, School of Social WorkHomard Unix ersity

JAMES L. JARRETTAssociate DeanUnisersity of California, Berkeley

I.FON ht. LESSINGERCa loss av Professor of EducationGeorgia State University

JOHN W. I ETSONSuperintendentAtlanta Public Schools

RICHARD I HD.LERVice PresidentBold. inWallace College

THOMAS F. PECIEGREWDepartment of Socir.1 RelationsHors ard University

SAMUEL SHEPARD, JR.Siiperiutendent of Sc heelsFact Chicago Heighis Board of Education

DONALD C. STONEGrad .13 te School of Public and

International AffairsUnixersity of Pittsburgh

RAt PH W. TYLERScience Research ASSOCilteS, Inc.

VICTOR WEINGARTENPresident, Institute of Public Affairs, Inc.

RESEARCH ADVISORY

ChairmanCHARLES L. SCALUT1E1 he Brookings Institution

WII BUR J. COVENf scan. School of EducationTlse Doh ersity of Michigan

OTTO ECKSI FINlSepattmeril of E COrlon, ICIFlat, ard University

WALTER W. HELIERDepartment of EconomicsUr i,ersity of Kf innesola

I AWRENCE C. HOWARDDean. Gr a duate School of Public

se it International AffairsUnix osity of Pittsburgh

( HARI FS P. KINDLE BF RGERDepartment of Economist, and Soeir., SsieneeNfaxsschuscits Institute el Technology

iOIIN R. MEYERPresidentNational Bureau of Economic Researcklnc.

F REM RICK C. HOMIERWoo/rev Wilson Department of

Goicrnment and Foreign AnitaUniversity of Virginia

6.

BOARD

DON K. PRICEDean, John Fiugcrard Kennedy School

of GosernmeritHarvard University

ELI SHAPIROSy!, an C. Coleman Professor of

Financial Management. GraduateS.h.tol of Business Administration

Illarlard Unix traity

MI) CHI IL SVIRDX)FEVise President, Division cf Nat Iona! AffairsThe Ford Foundation

PALI'. N. YLVISAKERProfess r. Public Affais and

Urban PlanningietovIresu Wilson School of Publicand Intonational Afro rs

Princeton Unisersity

Arwclare AfrmhrzaJ. I sOLIGI. AS BROWNPro, net and Dean of the Faculty EmeritusPrinceton Unit etsly

IlWARD S. MASONI amoni Unix cesity ProfessorHsi., aid University

RAYMOND VERNONProfessor of International' Trade and

Int est meld. Graduate Schoolof Business Administration

flailed Unit rrsity

Foreword

is policy statement reflects twoareas of interest which have claimed an important share of the CEDResearch and Policy Committee's attention in recent years.

The first of these interests is a concern the quality and effec-tiveness of education, which is critical for the economic well-being ofAmerican society and the full development of individual potential. Webegan our studies in this area more than a decade ago Nv i t h the policystatement Paying for Better Public Schools (1959), followed by RaisingLow Incomes Through improved Education (1965). We then turnedour attention to ways in vhich the limited resources of the schools couldbe used most effectively through better school administration and im-proved methods of instruction. This resulted in our 1968 statement onInnovation in Education: New Directions for the American School.

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7

Paralleling this research has been a series of interrelated studiesover the past three years which have been concerned with alleviatingpoverty in the United States, especially among the urban disadvantaged.In April 1970 we published a policy statement on Improving the PublicWelfare System, suggesting how our country's public assistance pro-grams could be improved, largely by integrating them into a nationalsystem of income maintenance that would he available to all those inneed. Three months later, we issued r. companion statement, Trainingand Jobs for the Urban Poor. The present policy statement is closelyrelated to these earlier statements.

As noted in the Summary, this statement reflects the Committee'sconcern "with the role of educational institutions in carrying out theirpart of the nation's broad mission of eliminating poverty in the UnitedStates, a poverty of cultural as well as material goods, and of opening upthe doors of opportunityto those who have been deprived an equitableshare of society's rewards" It is our belief till't improved education isessential for breaking the poverty cycle. However, it is clear that theelimination of poverty also will require coordinated efforts by govern-ment, private agencies, and the business sector to provide training andjobs, supplemented by an improved public welfare system.

Education for the Urban Disadvantaged: From Preschool to Em-ployent was prepared by a subcommittee under the chairmanship ofJohn L. Burns. The Project Director was Sterling M. McMurrin, Deanof the University of Utah Graduate School and former US. Commis-sioner of Education, who was assisted in the research and drafting of thestatement by Larry L. Leslie, Associate Professor and Research Associ-ate of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at PennsylvaniaState University. The Subcommittee on Education for the Urban Dis-advantaged was also aided in its deliberations by a number of distin-guished advisors. Various papers written by members of this group andother experts are being published as CED Supplementary Papers in threevolumes, entitled: Functional Education for Disadvantaged Youth; TheConditions for Educational Equality: and Resources for Urban Schools:Better Use and Balance.

On behalf of the Research and Policy Committee, 1 would like toexpress appreciation to Mr. Burns, Mr. McMurrin, Mr. Leslie, and themembers and advisors of the subcommittee for their valuable contributions.

8.

8

Emilio G. Co Ilado. Co-ChairmanResearch and Policy Committee

1.

Summaryof

Findings andRecommendations

While the American schools havegenerally provided middle- and upper-income youth with the intellectualtools necessary for success in our society. they have commonly failed tocope effectively with the task of educating the disadvantaged youth inour urban centers.* To an alarming extent they have simply swept disad-vantaged youth under the educational rug.

In the past there have always been large numbers of unskilledjobs for the functionally illiterate. But as technology absorbs the tasks ofunskilled workers, the chasm between the poor with inadequate schoolingand the remainder of society is widening at a rapid rate. Even whereunskilled jobs remain, they are frequently inaccessible to the poor of ourcentral cities.

13y concentrating Ibis statement on the urban poor, we do notsuggvsi that the plight of American Indians or other rural poor is less

Sce Memorandum by SIR. All AN SPROUT page 80.

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tragic or less worthy of our concern. We simply recognize that the urbanareas, which house 51 per cent of poor Americans, are now in a stateof acute and even desperate crisis with far-reaching social implicationsfor our total society.*

The common meanings of "disadvantaged" are vague and am-biguous. Frequently the terms "disadvantaged" and "poor" are usedinterchangeably, and the members of some minority ethnic groups aretypically assumed to be disadvantaged. In this statement, we use the termto apply to those persons whose economic status conforms to the currentfederal definition of poverty, which establishes a poverty threshold basedon annual income.' We have adopted this definition for the disadvantagedbecause it is the most frequently used and commonly recog.,ized andbecause it is the quasi-legal definition used by the several branches ofgovernment.

Our statement is concerned with all the disadvantaged childrenand youths in our cities. We speak of ';,e masses who are withmt func-tional literacy, access to employment, decent incomes, or the other neces-sities for a satisfying life. We recognize that whether they are white ornonwhite. our people have a common set of goals; these include freedomfrom hunger, pestilence, and disease and a fair share in the bounties ofthe larger society. There is a commonality of needs and interests amongall groupsadvantaged or disadvantaged. Indeed, much that is set forthin this statement will benefit education for all children.

Three urban disadvantaged groups in particular have receivedspecial attention in this statement. The acute problem of the black minor-itythe largest American minority group and the one most heavily con-centrated in the citiesspeaks for itself. Even though two-thirds of alliirb,n poor in 1568 were white, considering the nation as a whole theprobability of being poor was less than one in ten among whites, whereasamong blacks the probability of b.ing poor was one in three. We havealso devoted attention to special educational problems of the Mexican-Americans, who ore estimated to be the second largest ethnic minorityin the nation, and of the Puerto Ricans; both of these groups are alsoheavily conct ntrated in urban areas and have a high incidence ofpoverty.'

I /Thri poverty threshold (or a family of four is adjusted annually by the Social SecurityAdministrion. Sec Arpendix A.

2/For further information on the plight of the MexicanAmericans. see Apr., ndix B.'See Memorandum h SIR. DANIEL PARKER. page SO.

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1n

Though we have given our main attention to these particulargroups, our conclusions and recommendations for the improvement ofeducation and the enlargement of educational opportunity apply broadlyto all the urban poor. The disadvantaged of ei/ ethnic groups are nowdemanding equal treatment and attention. They deserve no less.

A Broad Attack on Poverty

The problems of the disadvantaged and the causes of their pov-erty are varied and complex. No single solution can cope with them.Improved education for the disadvantaged is indeed our best hope forbreaking the poverty cycle. But the ultimate breakthrough will occuronly when the environment that fosters discrimination and perpetuatespoverty is changed. This will require a massive, coordinated programthat will come to grips with basic social and economic ills.

The prosperity of the United States over the past quarter centuryor more, a greater affluence for more people than has ever been expe-rienced ;n world history, has not eliminated poverty and deprivation.Though our prosperity has greatly reduced the number of people inpoverty, millions are in diflir alt and rven desperate circumstances. Thepoor in the United States today are largely those unequipped by reason ofsome inability to find gainful employment in either the private or publicsectors of the economy. Their inabilities are commonly due to sickness.age, or other physical incapacity; discrimination because of race; or othercircumstances, such as a lack of education or training, over which theyhave little or no control. Though the poor now comprise only 13 per centof the population, they number nearly 25 million persons, more thanthe entire population of Canada and half that of France or the UnitedKingdom.

The major institutions and social structures that most profoundlyaffect the disadvantaged wer shaped in earlier eras to cope with far dif-ferent problems and conditions than those now obtaining. Rather thanworking to the advantage of today's urban poor, these often serve onlyto perpetuate the disadvantages and disabilities that lie at the heart oftheir problems. Much of the social welfare structure inherited from thepast is inadequate to deal with the problems of poverty in a high-employ-ment economy.

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In a policy statement on Improving the Public Welfare System,'this Committee offered proposals for sweeping changes that would createa truly viable, humane, and efficient system of welfare. Broadly, thesystem we envisage can be described as being based on need as the solecriterion for qualification whether need results from inadequate earningsor inability to work, thus opening welfare benefits to all the poor. As thebasic means for eradicating poverty, a floor would be established underthe incomes of all people through some system of income maintenance,with the federal government assuming all or most of the cost. Incentivesto work would be an essential component of this system, and this wouldbe coupled with programs for training and measures for assuring oppor-tunities for private and public employment for those able to work. In asubsequent policy statement on Training and Jobs for the Urban Poor,',e considered the revisions required in national manpower policy to

eliminate the chronic unemployment and underemployment of the urbanpoor by providing training and jobs for marginal workers. We a:-e nowengaged in studies of other vital matters related to the problem of poverty.These include a review of the entire health-care problem in the UnitedStates and a study of the financing of the nation's housing needs.

The complex nature of the causes of disadvantage arc demon-strated by piecemeal attempts at remediation. Bctter housing, for in-stance, does not necessarily reduce sickness, nor does it guarantee changesin reading and arithmetic scores; it may produce only very small change;in educational and occupational aspirations.' Nor has the educatioaalproblem been solved by such programs as Aid to Dependent Children.Almost half of the Am children, for instance, either drop out of school orare educationally retarded between the ages of fourteen and seventeen;only 25 per cent graduate from high school by the age of eighteen.'

In the United States. the school has long been the most promisingequalizing force, rind thus of the social agencies and institutions mostconcerned with the disadvantaged, it is of central importance to a coordi-nated civic effort. As the National Advisory Council on the Educationof Disadvantaged Children has pointed out, "Urban planning that does

3/Improving the Pithlic Welfare 5.131011, A Statement on National Policy by the Researchand Policy Committee, C mimittce for Economic Deselopment (New York: April 1970).

4/Training and lobs for the Urban Poor A Statement on National Policy by the Researchand Policy Committee, Committee for Economic Deselopment (New York: July 1970).

5/Danicl 51, Wilner, The flowing Erik ironmeni and Family tile (Baltimore: Johns Hop-kins Press, 1962), p. 159.

6/M. Elaine 13urgess and Daniel 0. Price. Art It Amer icon Dept. ride y Challenge (Chi-cago: American Public 'Welfare Association, 1963).

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not now include educational planning is not only unrealistic; it is irre-sponsible.' In the past, far too many public decisions influencing educa-tion directly or indirectly have been made in total disregard of the schools.It is now clear that the school must be at the center of those decisions.

Seven Imperatives for the Schools

In this statement we are concerned solely with the role of educa-tional institutions in carrying out their part of the nation's broad missionof eliminating poverty in the United States. a poverty of cultural as wellas material goods, and of opening up the doors of opportunity to thosewho have been denied an equitable share of society's rewards. We con-ceive education's role in this vitally important enterprise to be the instru-ment by which the disadvantaged enter the mainstream of America), lifethe same unique role the school. played in the assimilation of the millionswho came to this country in the great waves of immigration. But inresuming this historic function, education must now adjust to differentcultural patterns and personal motivations, as well as to strikingly differ-ent economic, social, and technological conditions, from those with whichit successfully coped in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Past discussions of educational equality commonly dealt withschool "inputs," such as money, teacher-pupil ratios, facilities, and teach-ing materials. Too often the school considered its obligation to efilalitysatisfied in these terms regardless of the students' levels of achievement.We insist that educational equality must be judged by school "outputs,"by the actual achievements of pup..s in intellectual skills, knowledge, cre-ativity, and action. We believe that the American people should refuseto settle for anything less than universal literacy and those intellectualskills which accompany literacy. Except for the less than i per cent ofany population group who are incapable of normal learning. the schoolsshould be expected and required to brill:: their pupils up to minimal stand-ards of intellectual achievementnot sonic of them, but all of them,

How can this goal be reached? Many seem to believe that all thatis needed is more money. Indeed, more money is needed urgently, partic-ularly ty the central city school systems serving vast numbers of the dis-

7/U.S. National Athisory Council on the Fducation of Disadsarilaied Children. "Schoolsfor an Open Society," in its Arotrod Report (Washington. D.C.: January 31. 19681,p, 45.

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advantaged. However, it is pertinent here to reiterate the observationmade in a pri r policy statement on Innovation in Education: New Direc-tions for the American School:

An increasing over-all expenditure on schooling in the UnitedStags in coming years can be anticipated. Yet it is vitally impor-tant to recogLize that the expenditure of increased funds will notby itself guarantee improved education. It has become increas-ingly apparent that additional funds are often employed toperpetuate and extend inefficient operational techniques andineffective instructional methods. The nation cannot afford towaste its resources by investing them in schools that fail to achievethe level of operational efficiency and effectiveness in instructionwhich is now within their reach.'

Programs that give promise for the effective education of the dis-advantaged are being developed. We must push ahead with these whilerecognizing the continuing need for new ideas and new strategies. Con-tinued research and experimentation are mandatory. Among the thingswe have learned is that the attack on educational problems must itself bea multi-pronged effort.

From our studies we conclude that there are seven imneratives tothe successful accomplishment of the schools' mission:*

1. Improved education for the disadvantaged is the hest hope forbreaking the poverty cycle. But the schools in the central cities can bemade genuinely efiective only if there is a transformation of the environ-ment which conditions the attitudes and learning capacities of childrenmul youths. The school does not function in a social, psychological, orinstitutional vacuum. Environmental factors outside the schools generateattitudes inimical or favorable to learning vdtich arc operative through-out the school years.

2. Preschooling is desirable for ell children, but it is a necessityfor the disadvantaged.** it is now known from social and psychologicalstudies that the experiences of early childhood may have a decisive effecton school failure and su sess. Moreover, there is evidence that effectivepreschooling gives the best return on the educational investment.

8/1nnovation in Education: New Directions lot the American School, A Statement onNational Policy by the Research and Policy Committee, Committee for EconomicDeselopment (New York: July 1968), p. 11.

*See Memorandum by MR. ALLAN SPROUL rage 80.*See !1cmorandunt by MR. P1111,1P SPORN, page 81.

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3. Education must prov;de children and youths with a sense ofcommunity and a comprehension of the world of work.* It is the vehicleby which the child moves into the larger world and the technologicalsociety. It must open the door to career opportunities, either directly topositions that provide satisfying work or to additional schooling leadingto the professions.

4. Success in the education of the disadvantaged requires thedevelopment of total instructional systems which bring together cotnpe-tent teachers, effective instructional technology, and curriculum mate-rials that are relevant to the interests and needs of the students. The entireschool experience should be designed to enlarge student motivation byexhibiting the concrete value of education,

5. The schools should be held accountable for their product; theyshould be judged in terms of their outputs. National, state, and local as-sessments of student performance should be employed. Furthermore, thesuccess of the central-city schools requires increased participation in de-ci.ciou making by their patrons from among the minority groups.

6. Equalization in the distribution of school resources has be-come a necessity. Even though equality of educational opportunity mayrequire larger school expenditures in disadvantaged areas, central-cityschools are expected to function with less money per pupil than theirsuburban counterparts. There must be basic transformations in the con-ventional methods of financing the schools.

7. Continued research is necessary to provide the ground fordeveloping effective methods for educt,ang the disadvantaged. Researchfindings must be applied in developing demonstration projects which canserve as models for improving both neighborhoods and schools. Dissemi-nation of research findings must be expanded, and full-scale programsmu ;t be established where pilot projects have proven valuable. Bothsocial and psychological research relating to the conditions for learningare essential.

In the remainder of this chapter, we present briefly the basis forthese conclusions together with our major specific recommendations.Thereafter, each of the seven imperatives is supported in some detail bya separate chapter of the text.

'See Memorandum by MR. PHILIP SPORN, page 81.

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Summary of Recommendations

We set forth the following recommendations in the interest ofgenerating public action to transform the quality of education. Theyare crucially important to education generally even though our specificconcern here is with the disadvantaged. We propose their considerationby all persons, groups, and organizations that make the educationaldecisions of the nation. We especially address legislatures, governmentagencies, profc6sion al educational organizations, local school boards andadministrators, and community action groups.

Environment

The children of the poor enter the school system greatly disad-vantaged by the deficits they bring with them of cultural deprivation andperhaps language difficulties. They may suffer physiological impairmentsfrom early malnutrition. They are far less likely to lack innate abilityto learn than they are to lack motivation because of environmental fac-tors. Regardless of ethnic background, middle-class children do betterin schools than their disadvantaged peers.

It is clear that the causes of poverty are complex and there is nosimple solution. But the cycle of poverty must be broken. We stand firmlyon the principle that education is the instrument by which the poor anddisadvantaged must enter the mainstream of American economic andsocial life. Compensatory and other programs aimed at achieving equal-ity for the disadvantaged should include all who are disadvantaged bytheir economic condition regardless of (heir ethnic origin.

If the urban disadvantaged child is nonwhite, he will almostsurely encounter segregated school patterns, compounding many of thedisabilities F.e already suffers. Racial discrimination continues to be thenation's most important single educational problem. Though there hasbeen sonic disillusionment with the initial promise of integration as ameans of providing equality of educational opportunity, we are com-mitted to the importance of integration to both human equality andimprovement in the general quality of education. Racial integrationremains basic to the more complex solutions to urban educational dilem-mas. School integration is of critical importance for the quality andequality of education as well as for social relationships. We urge thattop priority be given to school integration and that financial incentivesbe offered to districts which make clear progress toward desegregation.

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In going from a poor home to a middle-clas.., oriented school, thechild in effect shifts cultures and may experience a further alienation fromsociety. In providing urban youth with the knowledge and skills neces-sary for successful careers in our technologically based society, the schoolsmust respect the group values of ethnic minorities. Minority values de-serve preservation, and motivation for school success is strengthened bythe sell- esteem and aspiration for achievement that arise in part frompride in one's inheritance.

Preschool i ng

The most effective point at which to influence the cumulativeprocess of education is in the early preschool years, when the child has alarge capacity for acquiring skills and cultivating expectancies. Only amassive effort to establish both public and private preschool educationalprograms will provide the preparation in motivation, intellectual capa-cities, and physical skills essential to success in achieving total basicliteracy. Government support for free day-care centers providing pre-school education for children of working mothers should be continuedand expanded.

A general equality in basic student skills and understandings isboth possible and mandatory. Nearly everyone can learn to read andwrite and develop the skills necessary for a productive life. An all-outnational effort is necessary to secure equality of minimal achievementin the basic literacy skills of reading, writing, and computation. Theseskills are essential to every person, and their successful cultivation inevery person must be demanded of the schools.

Functional Education

The basic failure of contemporary urban lift: a failure that isreal for most but greatly accentuated for the pooris the absence of ameaningful orientation of children and youths to the world of work.During the early years when his vocational interests should be kinctledand his aspirations fired, the child all too often is not confronted by thelive options that should eventually be open to him. Genuinely functionaleducation uses work and other life experiences as laboratories in whichyoung people find real problems and tasks that require learning.

Effective functional education requires the introduction of chil-dren to the world of work in the primary grades and a continuous infu-sion of job information and counseling throughout the school years.

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The schools and prospective employers should jointly plan educationalprograms that will ensure not only adequate instruction but also satis-factory employment.*

Most important of all is that the disadvantaged child's options bekept open and his opportunities enlarged. The disadvantaged must haveequal opportunity with others to pursue education at the communitycollege and university levels and to qualify for professional and graduatedegrees. Education must open the door to career opportunities, eitherdirectly to positions that provide satisfying work and incomes or to addi-tional schooling that will lead to the professions. It is essential that edu.cational programs for the disadvantaged keep open every avenue tohigher education.

Teachers pnd Instructional Systems

The disadvantaged child may be further alienated by his en-counter with the rigidities of school and classroom organizational pat-terns, as well as by his teachers' low expectations for him. The abilityand preparation of the teacher have a direct relationship to pupil achieve-ment. Teacher abilities appear to have a cumulative effect, as the rela-tionship is more direct at the higher grades. Because of the lack offlexibility and adaptiveness in schools of education it may be advisableto look to new organizations to prepare teachers for the central city.Because traditional schools of education have not met the need, newmodels for teacher education are being developed which deserve seriousattention. Some are based on autonomous agencies that would draw theirstaffs from the universities, public schools, and private organizations.

Teacher education programs should be designed to meet thespecial demands of urban teaching. Education for prospective inner -cityteachers will succeed best if it invokes experience in the ccv.nmunitieswhere they are to teach. Qualified minority grc fp members should beactively recruited as leachers of teachers and for leaching positions inurban schools. To provide successful models for minority children, spe-cial efforts should be made to recruit mate minority group persons toserve as both teachers and paraprofessionals.

Extra incentives should be offered in the form of paid internshipsfor teachers vi ho select careers in urban education. Differentiated staffingpatterns and salaries should be established in urban schools to providesuperior inner-city teachers with incentive goals and rewards. The present

See Memorandum by MR. PHILIP SPORN. page 81.

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lock-step salary schedules do not encourage dynamic and innovativeteaching and are ill-suited to promoting teaching as a career.

Success in the education of the disadvantaged will require thedevelopment of instructional systems that bring together competentteachers, the most effective instructional technology, and curriculummaterials that are relevant to the experience and needs of the students.To reap the technological benefits already enjoyed by industry and com-munications, the schools must develop instructional systems that providethe teacher with the instruments essential to individualizing instructionwhile at the same time general instructional quality is greatly improved.

Accountability and Control

The principle of accountability demands radically new ap-proaches to the educational process. It shifts the focus of education fromteaching to learning, thereby forcing schools to answer for the achieve-ments of all groups of students as well as to assess the costs and benefitsof specific programs.

The schools must be held accountable for their product. Specialeducational programs for the disadvantaged should be funded only whereevaluations have been designed to identify concrete results and the con-ditions necessary for achieving those results. Programs and programcomponents producing superior results in teams of student achievementand attitudes should serve as prototypes for future fanCJig. Governmentfunding of experimental pi _ uns should require appropriate assessmentof results.

In our large urban centers, bureaucracy has created a barrierbetween a school and its patrons. Sonic form of decentralization is essen-tial. Districts that have decentralized should continue their experimentsin this direction. It should be obvious, however, that total segmentationof a large city into numerous completely independent and autonomoussmall districts could be disastrous to education, considering such require-ments as general supervision and review, Furthermore, there is the ques-tion of optimum site for a school district.

We urge school governing boards and administrators to solicitboth formal and informal community participation in the determinationof school policies and programs and to establish policies and procedureswhich 11i111 make that participation both possible and effective. The nationcan no longer tolerate conditions that prevent minorities from exertingeffective power in matters which determine their own destinies.

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While we urge the decentralization of large urban districts tomake them more responsive to the disadvantaged communities, webelieve that across the country generally there is still need for the con-solidation of small school districts.

Competent business, voluntary agencies, and nonprofit enter-prises should be encouraged to join with the schools in developing alter-native educational patterns. The schools should be given contractingpowers that will enable them to contract with private agencies for accom-plishing specialized tasks. We encourage experimentation in varyingdegrees of public school involvement by qualified elements of the privatesector. Contracts let to private agencies for specific services should beon a full accountability basis only.

School Expenditures

There is generally a wide differential between the expendituresper pupil in suburban and city schools. The expenditures are often in-versely related to need. Public school finance, especially in the urbancenters, is not grounded in sound economic theory and practice. Withthe continu:dg trend toward redistribution of wealth away from thecentral cities and into the suburbs, the financial plight of the central citieshas deepened. Because communities rely almost exclusively on the prop-erty tax for their fiscal needs, there is no possibility of achieving equalityin school financing without state equalization legislation or a basicchange in the tax structure.

Five actions are essential if the financial plight of the central-cityschools is to be overcome:

The assumption by the states of the responsibility for providingequality on a reasonable level of educational opportunity,

The adoption by the states of more effective and equitable revenuesystems taking into account ability to pay,

The equitable distribution of state assistance to satisfy real need,

Increased federal funds to provide more ad-quate resources formeeting the special costs of educating the disadvantaged and amore just distribution of these resources,

Requirement by state governments of school-by-school reportingof budgetary allocations to ensure that inner-city schools and pro-grams for the disadvantaged receive their fair share of funds thatothenvise are diverted elsewhere.

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Research, Development, and Application

Experimental programs for the disadvantaged child have pro-duced more failures than successes, but some lessons have been clearlylearned. Low pupil-teacher ratios are essential especially for preschool-ers. Teachers must receive training specifically related to the tasks beforethem. Parents must become positively involved. Objectives must beclearly defined and made the basis of instructional materials. Programsof brief duration are not effective.

There is no single best way to teach disadvantaged children, butit is clear that individualized instruction is the key strategy. By employingnear and familiar materials, the school can more effectively motivate thechild and enable him to cope more successfully with abstract concepts.

A greatly inhibiting difficulty has been the failure thus far toevaluate effectively the concrete results of experimental programs. Inurging continuing research and development in educational problems,we recognize that findings are of practical value only if they are effectivelyapplied in ways that clearly exhibit their value in improving education.*We strongly urge the development of social and educational laboratoriescoordinated community programs involving not only educational insti-tutions but other public and private social agencieson a scale that islarge enough to provide an environment for the disadvantaged and inwhich effective educational practices not only can be sorted out but alsoemployed with a real possibility, of success.

*See Memoiandum by MR. DANIEL PARKER, page 81.

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2.Environment

and the Successof the School

The schools in the central cities will become genu-inely effective in the struggle against poverty only ifthere is a transformation of the environment whichconditions the attitudes and learning capacities ofchildren and youths.

Most of the urban poor are relativelyrecent migrants from rural areas who find that in the cities they facemore complex economic and social p actices. From a society in whicheven illiteracy was not always a major obstruction to a successful andhappy life, they have come into a social system in which rliooling is themost reliable road to employment and general satisfactioh. As the num-ber of unskilled jobs continues to decline, schooling will become evenmore necessary.

That the environment plays an important role in shaping learningcan no longer be ignored in the pkaning and administration of schoolprograms. The school does not function in a social, psychological, orinstitutional vacuum. Environmental factors outside the school may gen-erate attitudes inimical or favorable to learning which are operativethroughout .ne school years.

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The basic problem is not the children's innate ability to learn.

It is making home and neighborhood environments more conducive to

learning and making the schools' curricula and methods relevant to the

experience, talents, and needs of the learners. But education is more than

simply learning; it is personal fulfillment. This requires environments in

which children and young people are nourished morally and spiritually

as well as intellectually.It has been shown that, on the average, middle-class children are

better able to perform certain mental tasks than economically disad-vantaged children.' Moreover, children from different ethnic groupsshow different combinations of abilities as well as different levels of

performance for various tasks, and middle-class children from differentethnic groups in general perform more like each other than do disad-vantaged children from different ethnic groups. This points up theimportance of environmental factors as compared to ethnological factorsin affecting learning cupability. Consider. for instance, that a substantialmajority of black children have never been over twenty blocks from theirhomes- -homes that in countless cases contain no books and often neitherpen nor pencil. Their view of life and the world is contained mainlywithin their immediate environment and the television screen.

Another major cause of poor learning is inter-city and intra-city

mobility. Where research has been designed to control for this factor, it

has been shown that minority students have not regressed in relation toothers. The Higher Horizons program in New York City, for example,

revealed that constancy in student performance could be expected ifstudents remained in the same school. It is clear that all agencies involved

with education, housing, job-training, and employment should work

together to solve the problems relating to student transiency. Publichousing enterprises, for example. should b: coordinated with education

because of the greatly reduced rate of transiency among public housing

occupants. As an illustration. the turnover in East Harlem housing 1:7oj-

ects. including transfers to other projt.cts. has been only about 5 per cent

per year.2 This contrasts with an extreme mobility rate among ninety-

one Manhattan elementary schools that experience a 51 per cent turn-over of students during each school year.

h is 110 W clear that the impact of diet and disease on a child'shealth, mental capacities. and sense of values can impair his motiva-

1/Jane G. Fort. Jean C. Watts and Gerald S. Lesser. "ethanol Background and !.earning

in Young Children." Phi Dclra Kappa'', N'ol. 50. No. 7 (March 1969). pp. 386-388,2/Patricia C. Sexton, Spanich Ne York: liorur Ross. 1965). p, 37.

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tion to learn. Going to school hungry in the morning, as some do, andremaining without lunch has an effect upon learning, as does the failureto get sufficient rest at night. A breakfast program in a Cleveland ele-mentary school, fo: instance, was accompanied by a significant rise inreading and arithmetic scores. Likewise, the school itself moved up 21places in its attendance rating among Cleveland's 136 elementary schools.

Perhaps even more serious obstacles to success in school arephysiological impairments which may result from improper maternal dietin late pregnancy and in the child's early infigicy. It is estimated thathundreds of thousands of babies are born each year with deficienciesdue to these causes) Furthermore, the physical and mental effects ofdrugs may soon outweigh other negative influences in the urban child'senvironment.

Environment and Expectations

It especially unfortunate that the typical disadvantaged childmay encounter few models of genuine success in his home or neighbor-hood but many instances of frustration and failure. He is denied much ofthe hope and expectation common in the experience of typical middle-class children. It is not surprising that many youths from low-incomefamilies drop out of school by age sixteen; they often come from brokenhomes or from homes which are culturally poor and which exert nega-tive influences on their educational aspirations and achievements.' What-ever the causes, a serious lack of motivation for education resultingfront environmental factors is found in an overwhelming number cc,children and youths from disadvantaged areas. Every attempt to bringthem into the mainstream of American life will be abortive if it failsto strengthen their motivation and their basic interests and enthusiasms.

The relationship of the family's socioeconomic group to Cie as-piration of diliren to ente: the professions is illustrated by studiesshowing an almost two-to-one ratio of middle-class students to disad-vantaged students who aspire to the professions. The power of environ-mental influence is further demonstrated by data which reveal that theratio of middle-class students who aspire to the professions in middle-

3 /Irving S. Ficogelsdorf. "Atoms and Niro: Esiticnce Links Diet to Niental Retardation."Los Angeks Times (Deceminr 12. 1968). part 2, p, 8.

4/Robert J. flasighurst and Lindley J. Stiles. "National Policy for Alienated Youth."Phi Delta Kappan. Vol. 42, No. 7 (April 1961), pp. 2'13-291.

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class schools compared to middle-class students in so-called disadvan-taged schools is also two to one. This ratio also holds for disadvantagedstudents in schools of these two categories.'

The generally low aspiration among disadvantaged children wascommonly thought in the past to result from low aspirations of parentsfor their children. But the studies which reached this conclusion appar-ently confused aspiration with expectation. Recent research clearly in-dicates that it is parental expectations rather than aspirations which arelow. In gcneral, parents of disadvantaged children are discouraged bytheir own inability to further the educational achievements of their chil-dren. They have experienced so much disappointment and failure thattheir feelings of hopelessness outweigh their aspirations.

If the children of the poor are to be strongly motivated towardschooling, their families must develop attitudes and behavior that en-courage them to look upon school as the ladder to a satisfying future.*Only when their families regard school as an aid to improvement dodisadvantaged children see schooling in a desirable light. This problemis especially acute in the case of boys.

Research has indicated that when poor black students are in-tegrated into schools with a high mix of middle- and upper-class students,their educational goals are clearly raised. When black students sensethat the odds for success arc against them, academic aspiration seems todecline. The trouble is that the odds usually are against them. There is aclear need to raise the '.ypical self-image of blacks, for there is generalagreement that black students do in fact often suffer from negative esti-mates of themselves.

Because our economic system has favored black women overblack men for the better of infer ior jobs, it has both perpetuated and ac-centuated the negative self-image of the typical poverty-stricken blackmale. Often he does not see education as an advantage. For him, educa-tion is too often a false promise too expensive to pursue and producinglittle but disappointment. Even with an education, he frequently facesdifficult and often insurmountable obstacles in his effort to get aheadeconomically.

Most of the attention given to minority group education has beenconcentrated on the problems of blacks. A large and growing segment

5 /Erwin Kali, -.RC% jos' of Evidence Relating to Effects of Desegregation on the Intellec-tual Performance of Nerocc.:. American Nchologig. Vol. 19. No. 6 (June 1964),pp. 381-399.

*Sze Memorandum h) MR. PHILIP IP SPORN. page 8$.

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of the urban disadvantaged, however, bear Spanish names and areSpanish-speaking Mexican-American or Puerto Rican. The typicalSpanish-speaking American has a sensitive awareness of his culture andhis language. But the general "Anglo" presumption of cultural superior-ity tends to destroy his confidence in himself and in his home and ethnicgroup. It often contributes to an emotional confusion that inhibits hisintellectual advancement and affects his personal opportunities.'

The causes of poverty are complex and there are no simple solu-tions. But the cycle of poverty must be broken. We stand firmly on theprinciple that education is the instrument by which the poor and disad-vantaged must enter the mainstream of American economic and sociallife. Compensatory and other programs aimed at achieving equality forthe disadvantaged should incluck all w + 'ho are disadvantaged by theireconomic condition regardless of their ethnic origin.

Racial Mix and Quality Education

Racial discrimination continues to be the nation's most importantsingle school problem. We are convinced that racial integration in theschools can improve the general quality of education. The mixing of dis-advantaged with advantaged students, where the former do not exceedabout 50 per cent, appears to help the learning of the disadvantaged with-out negative effects upon the advantaged.

The report on Equality of Educational Opportunity, better knownas the Coleman Report, has shown that of all school factors affectinga child's achievement the most important is the characteristics of thestudents with whom he is associated. In accounting for achievement, thecharacteristics of other students apparently outweigh in importance suchfactor- as school facjities cnd curricula and characteristics of teachers.The report found that only the child's family background is more im-portant. In spite of varying interpretations of the statistics, the ColemanReport's major conclusions seem to be supported.

The rerformance of minority pupils seems to depend more onthe schools they attend than does the performance of majority students.In the South, 20 per cent of the achievement of blacks is associated with

6/Clark S. Knmslton. "Special Education Problems of the Spanish-speaking Minorities ofthe South%sest,- in I hr Condition; for Educational EquaNy.CUID Supplementary Paperl'srumfvr i.t t SeiiN York: C'onimittee for rconon.ie Des elopment. Spring 19/1 I.

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the particular schools attended, whereas only 10 per cent of the achieve-ment of whites is so associated.' A minority pupil from a home indifferentto education will probably benefit from relationships with schoolmateshaving strong educational backgrounds. Yet white pupils from educa-tionally supportive homes seem to suffer no ill effects in terms of achieve-ment when placed in schools where many of the pupils do not come fromsuch homes.

What benefits car, reasonably be expected from an integratedschool system? Becicl':s the effects upon academic achievement of inte-grating the social classes, there are other striking results. The ColemanReport, for instance, shows favorable achievement gains among blackswho are integrated into white schools when they arc convinced that theycan importantly determine their own environments and futures.

The Sexton study on Spanish Harlem reported that upon transferof eighty-three black students from East Harlem to white, middle-classYorkville, numerous behavioral changes were reported. Thirteen stu-dents showed improved attendance; fifty-one reported improved workhabits as compared to one decline; forty-seven voiced an increased inter-est in school, while only one reported decreased interest. Parents werelikewise satisfied, with only five indicating a disappointment with thetransfer while eleven were "pretty well satisfied" and fifty-five were "wellsatisfied.'

The schools will not be fully, integrated simply by actions of schoolboards or in the ordinary course of events. The achievement of integra-tion in our great cities, whether in the North. South. Eti,t, or West, willbe through changes in housing and income patterns. through an externalreorganivtion of school systems, and through the continual enactmentand enforcement of appropriate laws. The demand for separatism nowbeing made by sonic blacks probably does not represent the majorityof black opinion and is not in the real interest of the black segment ofour society. Separatism in large part is a product of the failure of theschools and other social institutions to provide for the special needs ofminority people. Compensatory gains can be made in improving pre-dominantly nonss like schools, but we believe that integration is basic'to the solution of the educational problems of the disadvantaged.

It is not our purpose here to advance proposals on the techniquesof integration. We affirm our support for effective school integration and

------7/Janics S. Coleman and others. Equality of Educational Opportunit, (Wachington,

D.C.: U.S. Golcrnment Printing Office. 1966).8/Patricia G. SeVon,Spanith Mr/ern, pp. 51.52,

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urge an all-out effort by schools and other appropriate social agencies todevise the ways and means of overcoming segregation and its destructiveeffects on education. Those ways and means must relate to the internalgrouping and instructional practices of individual schools; the instruc-tional programs and deployment of students, teachers, and administratorswithin school districts; and the establishment of district boundaries aswell as cross-district arrangements to determine racial mix.

If middle- and upper-income famil;es are to be enticed towardintegrated schools and black separatism is to be contained, schools mustoffer instruction attractive to higher ability children from both disad-vantaged and advantaged backgrounds. To move toward equality ofopportunity and to establish a minimal level of competence requiresoffering instructional programs designed for both gifted children andthose needing compensatory programs. Whether white or nonwhite, noteveryone can benefit from college preparatory courses nor does everyoneneed remedial reading.

Though there has been some disillusionment with the initialpromise of school integration as a means of providing equality of educa-tional opportunity, we are committed to the importance of integrationto both human equality and improvement in the general quality of edu-cation. We are opposed to racial segregation in the schools as inimicalnot only to the nonwhite minorities, but to the whit2 majority as well.Racial integration remains basic to the more complex solutions to urbaneducational dilemmas. School integration is of critical importance forthe quality' and equality of education as %sell as for social relationships.We urge that top priority be gi% en to school integration and that financialincentives be offered to districts which make clear progress towarddesegregation.

The Classroom Environment

The shift in cultures that occurs when a child goes from a poorhome to a middle-class oriented school n,dst be considered in everyattempt to reform his education. lie is not likely to derive satisfactionfrom going to a school where he is neither well received nor successful.Verbal rewards may impress him very little, as he may have no interestin pleasing a teacher who may represent to him a hostile world. In fact,the value the child places on acceptance by his schoolmates often means

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that he gains more satisfaction from a teacher's disapproval than fromapproval. Failure in school may bring him more pleasure than doessuccess.

But it is of crucial importance to remember that simple integra-tion of the schools does not guarantee the end of racial discrimination.Even organized discrimination sometimes persists in the classrooms ofintegrated schools.

The schools must capitalize on the special qualities of characterthat issue from the social circumstances of being poor. Disadvantagedchildren, for instance, learn responsibility at an exceptionally early age,often beginning such tasks as babysitting at the age of five or six. Theyalso experience less sibling rivalry because there is less struggle for thelove of the mother or father. Moreover, because typically in his homefamily ties and mutual aid are strong, the disadvantaged child is oftenmore cooperative and less competitive than others. Here are basic traitsof character worthy of support and reinforcement, and having importantrelevance to success in school. But the school can build upon suchfamily values only if they are understood and respected by the child'steacher.*

The difficulty in developing effective curricula for the disad-vantaged arises in part from the failure to agree upon primary educa-tional goals beyond the achievement of basic literacy. Much of this isdue to the failure to define goals in terms of the values of the disad-vantaged. Curricula should be designed to bring the disadvantaged intothe mainstream of American economic, social, and political life. But theforces that produce equality should not destroy the distinctive culturalvalues of minority people.'

Developing curricula that arc relevant to life in a society whichis in large measure grounded in middle-class values without destroy-ing or injuring minority heritages is a difficult task that calls for uncom-mon inventiveness and innovation. That disadvantaged students may lackmotivation for he study of Shakespeare. the hundred Years' War, ordangling participles is quite understandable. The task of the schools isto ascertain the level of the student's readiness and to excite his curiosityand enliven his intellect through subjects and activities that will havereal meaning for him. Life in the big city, for instance, is not an inappro-

9/1.arry L. Leslie and Ronald C. Bigelow, -Relevance and Selflmage in the UrbanSchool." in The Condition; for Educational Equality. CED Supplementary Paper Num-ber 34.

'See Memorandum by MR. PHILIP SPORN. page 82.

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priate subject for study, especially for those who live there. "SesameStreet" has clearly shown that life on urban streets can be a fascinatingeducational vehicle for the entire nation, young and old.

The usual test of the relevance of the curriculum has been simplywhether the subjects studied have value and utility in the larger society.Some elements o' a curriculum, such as reading and writing, obviouslyhave basic value for any society. But full relevance of a curriculum forschools serving Mexican-American, Puerto Rican, or black childrenrequires attention to studies pertaining to the history, cultural achieve-ments, and general experience of these ethnic groups. Some groups arepressing hard for separate courses to satisfy this need, and such coursesmay sometimes be temporarily justified. We believe, however, that thelong-range goal should be to integrate honestly and fairly such subjectsas minority group history and literature into more general courses. Theproliferation of special minority courses can ultimately lead only toseparate classes for blacks, Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Indians,Poles, Slovaks, Italians, and other ethnic groups.

An integrated curriculum has value for all students, white or non-white, advantaged or disadvantaged. We cannot justify, on social oreducational grounds, for instance, our failure to include in our textbooksan honest treatment of black, Mexican-American, or Indian contributionsto American social history or the arts. These are important subjects ofstudy for all students, not just for minorities.

Beyond their common value to all, however, curricula that includeblack literature, black history, Mexican-American or Indian, or otherminority group studies should enhance the sell-images of minority stu-dents. Such curricula may well raise the level of achievement in literacyskills as well as in substantive knowledge and appreciation. As their self -

images improve, minority students should gain greatly in self-confidenceand in the esteem of their teachers. which in turn should improve theircapacity to succeed in academic pursuits and should stimulate them toseek a "piece of the action" that has previously been beyond their reach.

In brief, it is dear that in providing urban youth with the knowl-edge and skills necessary for successful careers in our technologically.based solely, the schools must respect the group values of ethnic minori-ties. Minority values deserve preseration, and motivation for schoolsuccess k strengthened by the selfestecm and aspiration for achievementthat arise in part from pride in one's inheritance.*

"See Memorandum by MR, PHR.IP SPORN. page 82.

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3.Preschooling

and the Achievementof Equatity

Preschooling is desirable for all children, but it is anecessity for die disadvantaged. Without it, there islittle possibility of achieving equality in education.

Abetter understanding of the earlyenvironmental factors underlying the learning difficulties experienced bypoor children of school age has gained support for efforts to equalizethe starting point for all children. in urging more and better preschooleducation in our policy statement on Innovation in Education: NewDirections for the American School. we observed that "apparently themost effective point at which to influence the cumulative process of edu-cation is in the early years." The National Advisory Commission on CivilDisorders has supported this position with the following resolution: "Thetime has come to build on the proven success of Head Start and otherpreschool programs in order to bring the benefits of comprehensive earlychildhood education to all children . .." Not only do we urge the estab-lishment of extensive preschool programs. but we also favor a seriousconsideration of the advisability of lowering the beginning age for regularschooling.

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The Promise of Preschool Education

On the basis of extensive research by himself and others, Jerome S.

Bruner holds that "the staggering rate at which the preschool childacquires skills, expectancies, and notions about the world and aboutpeople; the degree to which culturally specialized attitudes shape thecare of children during these yearsthese are impressive matters thatlend concreteness to the official manifestos about the early years."'

Research in this area demonstrates that improvement can be anti-cipated in IQ scores for low-income children of four and five who areexposed to structured. scheduled, consistent classroom environments.There must be careful planning of instructional units with constant feed-back: teachers must have a high degree of control and mu not overlookpoor effort and careless performance.' Sympathetic understanding ofchildren is vital, but to encourage lack of direction and internal disciplinecan be damaging.

A National Institut.e. of Mental Health study has demonstratedthat dramatic increases in IQ scores can be achieved through infant tutor-ing. A group of sixty-four black children fifteen months old was dividedinto experimental and control groups. The children in the first group wereread to. talked with, and played with for an hour a day in an effort todevelop their mental and verbal capacities. The control group receivedno special treatment. in slightly less than two years. the experimentalgroup showed an average IQ of 106 compared with 89 for the controlgroup. Although regression in 10 began when tutoring ceased, languageskills remained constant.'

Success in preschool programs depends on carefully definedobjectives, specialized teacher preparation, and work with small groupsover an extended period of time. It has been shown, for instance. thatprograms of less than two months have little value at all.' Long-rangesuccess depends on the continuation of effective programs to preventregression. It depends also on altering the home environments tothem more supportive of educational efforts. Often it is necessary to

1/Jerome S. Bruncr, ' Poverty and Childhood,- in Pie Condi ionr fur Educational Equal.fry, CED Supplementary' Paper Number 34.

2/Carl Bereitcr and Siegfried Engel mann. -Ohsers at ions on the Lise of Direct Instructionwith Young Disadvantaged Youth." Journal of school Psychology. Vol. 4, No. 3(Spring 1966), pp. 55-62.

3/Research Notes: NIM}1 Study: Tutoring Ups Infant I.Q.'s Dramatically." Phi DeltaKappan. Vol. 50. No, 7 (March 1969), p. 415.

4 /David 6. 1-4,1Aridgc. G. Kasten Tallmadge. and Judith K. Larsen, roundationr forSuccess in I:dunning Minds antaged Children (Pato Alto: American Institutes forResearch in the Behas iota! Sciences. December 1968). pp. 17-18.

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conduct preschool programs in apartment buildings or housing develop-ments to assist working mothers. Such arrangements help alleviateparents' fears of taking very young children into strange environments.

Preschool education is now generally regarded with favor bylarge numbers of parents of disadvantaged children, by educationalresearchers, and by national educational leaders. It has wide supportamong persons who have been disillusioned with much of what has beentried in the name of compensatory education.

The decisive effect of early childhood experiences on school fail-ure and success makes preschooling for the disadvantaged a necessity.Only a massive effort to establish both public and private preschool edu-cational programs will provide the preparation in motivation, intellectualcapacities, and physical skills essential to success in achieving total basic;:teracy. Government support for free day-care centers providing pre-school education for children of working mothers should be continuedand expanded. In advocating such a federally- supported national pro-gram in our policy statement on improving the Public Welfare System,this Committee said, "We strongly urge that the age of eligibility forinclusion in any such day-care program be extended down to includetwo-year-olds, and that the program should be broad in concept so thatinstead of being mei sly custodial in nature the centers provide an educa-tional experience and enric' mcnt for young children along the lines ofHead Start."

Preschooling and Literacy

In education for the disadvantaged, the failures have outdistancedthe successes. To the surprise and disappointment of many observers, ithas been learned that compensatory education, remedial programs, andspecial tutorials in their present forms and magnitude often do not workas expected. Perhaps such programs not only have been too weak andlacking in continuity, but also have not been available to the child at asufficiently early age. Disadvantaged children w ho reach school agewithout preschooling soon fall behind in reading and writing. This resultsin retardation in all tasks requiring basic literacy. When the beginningsare a failure, ultimate failure is built into the system. We often fail torealize that education is a cumulative process: poor educatio'n is usuallythe result of an accumulation of ducational failures.

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Inasmuch as a poverty-stricken home is likely to curb a child'sadvancement because of the dysfunctional (in the school sense) Englishspoken there, it is undoubtedly desirable to begin work with the languageproblems of children at an early age. If preschool has value for blackchildren because of language problems, it is a necessity for those PuertoRican and Mexican-American children who learn only Spanish in theirhomes and for those American Indians who may learn only a triballanguage. Language has been the whipping boy for educators seeking tolocate the blame for their inability to provide an adequate education forthese children, Poor performance in English is a very serious difficulty,but this fact has often been used as an escape from virtually all problemsin their education. When a child is reared in an environment where alanguage other than English is commonly employed, a bilingual educa-tion enriches both his learning and our general culture. Far too little hasbeen done to develop curricula that will cultivate bilingual ability amongthose whose childhood and family environment have dearly provided afoundation for competence in another language.

At entrance to school, disadvantaged children arc often lessequipped than others to cope with verbal and abstract matters: p-:logically geared more to the co. ete, they often perform poointelligence and achievement tests. Their early deficiencies, suchstandard performance in reading, thereafter have a cumulativeon their learning. This is not to say that these children are lack iverbal abilities. Quite the co,-,trary. They may have a rich and elanguage, fully effective and adequate in communicating with theirat home or in the neighborhood society. The problem lies in theiiof competence in the established language of the schools. the lat1.2,1usages that generally dominate our culture. We do not argue the faof these circumstances; we simply recognize that for countless chlthe language of the school is in effect a second language.

The matter of language styles is a difficult and delicate educsproblem. Language is usually an epitome of the general culture:not less true in the case of the typical disadvantaged person of the Lcity. If the school totally rejects his language, it does him a grave innot only in its eslimau. of his abilities and in his treatment, but a',the implied rejection of Ws culture. This is a rejection of much tiprecious to him personaliy and may he of great worth to society in INThe damage done to his self-image and ultimately to his atiiiiidc.motives may be irreparable.

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On the other hand, to establish a child's formal education in alanguage far removed from general usage may deny him the opportunityto achieve the very things to which he and his parents aspire. Certainlythe school must not fail to teach the child those English language usagesthat are essential to his success in life within the general society.

A further question raised here concerns the reliability and validityof intelligence tests, which are still the subject of much disagreementdespite the efforts that are made to adjust for cultural differences throughthe construction of so-called culture-free tests. A rest intended to measureintelligence is manifestly inadequate and results in an unfair distortionif it employs a vocabulary foreign to a student or assumes a cultural back-ground unfamiliar to his experiences. Unfortunately, the likeliF aod ofproducing a genuinely culture-free test is small because test performancedepends upon the very complex and interrelated mental processes thatoccur in problem solving and abstract thinking. The use of such tests withminority group students should be restricted to diagnostic purposes.

Acquiring the Basic Skills

Effective preschooling offers promisr:: that the starting point forthose entering the school system in some degree can be equalized. Radicalimprovement in the education of the disadvantaged \vill be possible onlywhen there is a full national commitment to education for equality asboth an authentic moral ideal and a practical necessity. Education forequality is a necessary condition for the maximum development of everyperson. It will provide the best ground on which the individual can movetoward successfully managing his life and coping with his environment.

Fortunately. there is row a general movement to treat the issueof equality and inequality in education in terms of "outputs," meaningthe achievement levels of students, rather than simply "inputs.' such asmoney. buildings. and euvipment. Inputs are important. but it is clearthat equality of inputs cannot guarantee equality in achievement.

We do not hold that through education we can achieve equalnessamong individuals when judged by their best performances. Individualdifferences clearly make this impossible. Rather. the equality that theschools can and must achieve is the equality which is obtained whenminimum standards are met. Certain skills and capabilities are sopensable in our socict) that without 01C111 a person cannot satisfactorilymeet the challenge of fife.

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A general equality in minimal achievement of basic skills andunderstanding is both possible and mandatory. Nearly everyone can learnto read and write and can develop the skills necessary for a personallyproductive life. It is a worthy effort, Cor instance, to require that all first-grade pupils learn to read by June. That is, everything necessary must bedone to ensure uniform success in meeting minimal standards, even tothe extent cf partially sacrificing other things in the curriculum./4l/ stu-dents s`tould learn to read. This is not to say that all students will learnto read equally well, but it does mean that they must all cultivate the skillto read at or above an established level. The demand for at least minimumskill should apply also to writing, mathematical computation, oral expres-sion. and elemental manual tasks.

Our emphasis on equality in minimal achievement does not meanthat we are any the less concerned with the full cultivation of the talentsand abilities of all persons. We are committee to the intrinsic worth anddipity of every person and to the full development of all our humanresources. There are children and youths of both high and low abilitiesamong the whites and nonwhites of the central cities and the suburbs.Good education must be available to all of them, no matte; where theyhappen to live. To achieve this end. the schools must make an aggressiveeffort to establish the conditions essential to equality. Without this, theattempt to strengthen the education of the disadvantaged will continueto be simply a holding action.

An all-out national effort is necessary to secure equality of mini-mal achievement in the basic literacy skills of reading, writing. andcomputation. These skills are essertial to every person, and their suc-cessful cultivation in es ry person 'ASt be demanded of the schools.

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IMMIMMI21,

4.Functional

Education forCareers

Education must provide children and youths with acomprehension of the world of work and must openthe door fo career opportunities.

Abasic failure of urban life, whichis greatly accentuated for the poor of the central city, is the absence ofan effcctiv: orientation of children and youths to the world of workthe work of the productive trades, the various public services, the tech-nical and engineering occupations. and the professions. The home. com-munity, and school do not ioin effectively in inducting the child. disad-vantaged or advantaged. into an understanding of economic life and ofthe claims it will make upon him as a maturing and adult citizen, or aknowledge of the various roles to which he may aspire.

During the years when his vocational interests should be kindledand his aspirations fired, the child k rarely confronted by the live optionswhich should cventualty be open to him. Indeed. the school often worksagainst his gaining any real sense of :nvolvement with work of any kind.Too often it is indifferent to the real world in which the child must live,to his needs. his obligations and responsibilities. and his possibilities.

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Only rarely does it uevelop those connections of academic pursuits withocciTational experience which will exhibit to young people the practicalworth of education.

To be genuinely functional, according to Ralph W. Tyler, educa-tion must use 'work and other arenas of life as a laboratory in whichyoung people find real problems and difficulties that require learning,and in which they can use and sharpen what they are learning. There isno intention of substituting learning on the job for the deeper insightsand the knowledge and skills that scholars have developed. The teacher,the books, other materials of the school, and the intellectual resourcesof the community are to be employed by the student as he works on theproblems of his job and carries through projects on which he is engaged."'

Functional education should begin in kindergarten and even inpreschool programs. The child should be made aware of the differentforms of productive work, the obligations they entail, and the rewardsthey produce. As Tyler again has observed. the early years of schoolingin particular should "enable each child to develop habits of work that arebasic to all group endeavors whether in work. at home, or in socio-civicactivities." These habits include getting to the job on time, starting activi-ties promptly and cat rying them on energetically, not interfering .,vith theactivities of other people. "Many children,- Tyler notes, "develop theseuseful habits through the opportunities and discipline provided in thehome, but many do not. Through a broadening of its program, the schoolis in a position to instill these habits in those who do not have opportuni-ties elsewhere and to afford a wide range of situations for praciice by all."

Since many modern processes and institutions of production, dis-tribution, and consumption are not readily observable. special attentionshould be given to experiences in and out of school that will enablechildren to gain an understanding of the ways by which they obtainnecessary goods and services. Lawrence &mesh has shown ir, his experi-ments in Elkhart, Indiana. that first-grade children can easily grasp such743ticepts as division of labor, medium of exchange. production andconsumption, distribution. and transportation. Children in the primarygrades can also gain a simple working understanding of more complexmatters, including the roles of capital. credit. and insurance.'

I/Ralph W. Tyler. "ihe Concept of Functional Education.- in I c tiorrol Eittoc orlon for1)i,oritortragitf work(' I I) Surrlcrnintdr l'oper Number 32. NI.irch 1971.

2/f'ionecring v.ork in the entire are." Of economic cducatio, for oung people has beenen/led on h the Joint ('ouncil on r-conomic I jtj iii n. I hrough it. du,picc,., pro-grams and rn.iteri.ils conc,.ing an ,:r.dcr.o.inding of the v.i in which the economic%),tern functions h.o.e been doctored and lured in numl,cr of elementary and ,eclmhiary ,ch vls throughout the nation.

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An introduction to the world of work and the individual's rela-tionsnip to it, in terms of the possible occupations and functions that areopen to him, is desirable for all children. Infusion of information aboutcareers should continue through the elementary grades and becomeclearly focused at the junior high and high school levels. Here, in assistingthe disadvantaged, the function of the counselor should be primarily oneof facilitating job placement and furthering educational possibilities.Compatibility of student aptitudes and desires with job requirements andcontinuing education should be the guiding principle.*

Making Vocational-TechnicalEducation Relevant

Vocational education is sometimes viewed as a general panaceafor the ills that afflict the youth of our central cities. Certainty, vocational-technical training when geared to rL al work experience and job oppor-tunities is desirable for many central -city students. as it is or manysuburban students. But an arbitrary channeling of students into programsthat limit their range of opportunity disregards both the interests andabilities of individuals and abrogates their right of self-determination.It may even destine them permanently to subservient positions in society.Extreme care must be taken to guarantee that no person will be lockedinto vocational pursuits at an age when hi, interests, capabilities. andaspirations have not sufficiently matured.

Nevertheless, vast numbers of persons from the urban minoritygroups have no jobs, skilled or unskilled. Both unemployment and under-employment among blacks and other minority groups are excessivelyhigh. In f Ext. the unemployment rate for nonwhite high school graduatesis higher than for white dropouts,' To make matters worse, the futurepromises fewer and fewer jobs for the unskilled. If large numbers arewithout jobs in the future. they will surely be predominantly from theminority groups. Without more effective education for the youth of cities,this predicament will persist.

Our best chance of creating a society in which the individual isgenuinely free is to keep his Options open and varied. to provide him with

3 Sc ) moor l Wo4h,:in. -So cn Sir I for rdo. ,inon.- fn/ rotrtioo,11 fur nomili.00irri:e'd )rf+11/11. (II) StliVIC111C111.111 ParCr NO. 32.

'Sc c Memor,ndum 1,i SIR. P1111 II' SPORN. rip: 52.

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a maximum of opportunities, and to support him with good training andcareer information and competent counseling.

It is an unfortunate paradox that more and more jobs are unfilled.But these are not unskilled jobs; they are technical in nature and requirespecial skills. Business and government personnel officers interested inhiring minority-group people have difficulty securing enough qualifiedemployees to fill the demands for professional and semiprofessionalworkers. Colleges actively recruiting qualified minority students havedifficulty in identifying them in adequate numbers. Even where entrancestandards are adjusted and high-risk students are solicited as applicants,comparatively few respond and fewer still are successful. A large partof the recruitment process must be the educating of minority groups tothe opportunities that are now becoming or will become available.

A basic problem in the objectives of American schools is clearlyset forth in the following statement by Garth L. Mangum:

As a generalization, each level of the system except the graduateschool has as its primary objective the preparation of the studentfor matriculation at the next higher stage of the education system.With the minor exception of a few vocational high schools andpost-secondary technical schools, only the graduate and profes-sional schools are specifically and primarily vocational in theirpurposes. Elementary and junior high schools have only oneobjectivegetting into high school.'

The separation of functional education from academic educationmust be overcome. The person who has only an "academic" educationhas important options closed to him just as does the person who has astrictly vocational, "non-academic" education. Alfred North Whiteheadinsisted that "education should turn out the pupil with something heknows well and something he can do well:' A good vocational-technicaleducation is one in which academic pursuits arc part of a package thatincludes but is not limited to occupational skills. leaumg by way of workexperience to employment. We cannot deny that vocational educationas presently constituted and pursued is second class. But we believe thatthe integration of vocational and academic education can greatly reducethe differences between them while improving both. Vocational educa-tion a ithc,ut the humanities and social sciences is seriously deficient.

4;(iArth I . Mangum, Vo,ith for rinplo)nicro: The Kole of the PIThiTS:Schook.- in Ii,,;(ritonai 1.ilmorion for l)i,alltwir,o,of Youth. ( Surpfeincradrl'oper No. 32.

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Moreover, vocational-technical education must center on trans-ferable knowledge and skills rather than on specific manipulative opera-tions that are often quickly outmoded. Unless this is done, much time andenergy and money will be wasted on instruction that yields no practicalworth in a world of rapid technological change and occupational mobility.To quote the Advisory Council on Vocational Education:

Vocational education cannot be meaningfully limited to the skillsnecessary for a particular occupation. It is more appropriatelydefined as all of those aspects of educational experience whichhelp a person to discover his talents, to relate them to the worldof work, to choose an occupation, and to refine his talents anduse them successfully in employment. In fact. orientation andassistance in vocational choice may often be more valid deter-minants of employment success, and therefore more profitableuses of educational funds, than specific skill training.'

In vocational high schools, the dropout rate is sometimes 60 percent higher than that of "academic" high schools. Not only does thevocational school sometimes function as a dumping ground for low-ability students, Lin in actual practice often does not really prepare stu-dents for the work force. Moreover, the processes of student selectionfrequently screen out those in greatest need. Most seriousbecause itinvolves the most studentsis the la: le of an effective relationship betweenthe school and the job. the absence of a continuum from school toemployment.

The School-Job Linkage

Successful work-study programs progress from complete schoolsupervision of the student's education to a stage where he is jointlyinstructed by the school and the prospective employer. Eventually, thestudent devotes full time to the job with continued supervision by schoolpersonnel until he achieves regular full-time employment.

It is now recognized that certain elements must he present in alltraining programs. The first and most crucial of these is employmentcermimy. When trainees are unable to find stlitIbie positions. their disillusionment about the value of education affects not only their own

5/1J-S. Ad% kory Counol on Vo,.!ion,i1 I'd,:,Ltion, I eot w,orr,,1 t ,firrLri,o,;, 1 he Br irlceIlc,Ot col Afan and ific GcH, fa/ Report (Wasitington. D.C.: US. (41%ern111cntPrinting Office. 1968. )

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attitudes but also the spirit and aspirations of others in their group.Another requisite of successful programs is the availability of continuingeducation, even after olacement is made. Continuing educai:...m can meanboth retention and promotion.

Judged by the hard economic facts, job training is the only pro-gram for the disadvantaged which has proved its value in terms of dollarcosts. Job training and retraining have produced as much as a ten-dollarreturn to society for every dollar spent. No other special or compensatoryeducation program for the disadvantaged can claim a ratio that evenapproaches one to one.

In spite of increased federal and state expend:tures, financingvocational-technical programs remains a primary obstacle to their suc-cess. The main problem is placing the money where it is most needed andwhere it will be most effective. Distributing funds indiscriminately to allschool districts and to municipalities of all sizes brings Utile change any-where. The vocational needs of central ci..es are so great that the fundsavailable ace almost always inadequate. Additional funds are needed forprofessional staff. equipment, reimbursements to employers where extracosts are incurred, and transportation for students. Vocational- technicaleducation historically has been and remains largely a federal programsince major financing has been through federal appropriations. However,without state and local initiative it will continue to suffer from inadequatecommunity support and commitment.

Money, organization, and programming are not the only difficultproblems facing successful education for careers. Among school peoplethere is a strong conservatism that has resisted the updating of vocational-technical instruction to meet the demands of a rapidly developing tech-nology, and a changing industrial world. And among the students andprospective students there is the persistent problem of motivation. Wewill not develop successful mechanisms for educating urban youth foracceptable careers until we break through our educational conservatism.We will not succeed in motivating them for education until we can removethe barriers to their employ ment resulting from discrimination by tradeunions, professional organizations. and employers. We must recognize,moreover. that the puritan work values of middle-class whits America donot lie at the foundation of much conk nporary urban culture.' Manyyoung people honestly see no value in pursuing a vocation in the wannerthat has been taken for granted by the majority. (4 Americans. This clearly

'Howard A N1,1:rhevo, I slucefirn .ir3 Yetuh.- in I roE ritmal 1.(lutt;!...r.r1 to, Ms-act' aiirao I/ )'oath, CIA) Supplementdr) paper Number 12.

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points up the necessity for a better understanding of urban life and themotives that today dominate our society.

Effective functional education requires the introduction of chil-dren to th! world of work in the primary grades and a continuous infu-sion of job information and counseling throughout the school years. Theschools and prospective employers should jointly plan educational pro-grams that will ensure not only adequate instruction but also satisfactoryemployment.

Higher Education Opportunities

We hold that opportunities for higher education, through com-munity college, professional school, and graduate school, must be madeequally available to all regardless of their racial or economic back-grounds. Although we do not argue that it is necessary or advisable forall youth to have a college educationthere c'wiously are other roads tohappiness and successwe believe that it is a betrayal of the Americanideal to continue to funnel large segments of our population into educa-tional patterns which deny them the opportunity to exploit fully theirinterests and abilities. The options available to the disadvantaged throughhigher education must be multiplied and kept open.

Community colleges are central to any discussion of career educa-tion: increasingly tht,y are assuming responsibility for technical instruc-tion as well as general education. In these institutions, the problems ofthe statut of functional education is being largely overcome. "Careerprograms.' are rapidly replacing the traditional "vocational" programsby producing a mix of technical and academic instruction. This is a trendthat should be encouraged through all possible means.

The community colleges. moreover, promise to be effecti%_ inovercoming racial inequality. Because of their accessibility, they are agateway through which the disadvantaged may move to civic influenceand leadership, high level technical positions, and university preparationfor the advanced professions. Investigations have shown that geographicproximity of colleges is the most potent factor in attracting high schoolgraduates into higher education. This was one of the co, iderations takeninto account by this Committee in our 1965 poliL) statement on RaisingLow Incomes Throu,sth Improved Education when we recommended that"education beyond high school should be easily available to all who canbenefit from it, or are willing to pay for it. Establishment of a network of

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publicly financed community colleges or technical institutes within com-muting distance of most students would be an effective step towardthis goal."'

Equalizing opportunity in higher education requires a recognitionof the injustices that have developed in our educational system. Due to thenature of their environment, disadvantaged youths do not have the samechances for scoring high on admissions tests. Colleges and universitiesare beginning to face these facts and are modifying their admissionsrequirements accordingly. In place of the traditional criteria, such factorsas leadership ability. creativity, motivation, and academic standing incomparison to other disadvantaged youths should be given consideration.Organizations involved in national college testing programs should con-tinue to reform their examination procedures to guarantee equity incollege admissions.

Nevertheless, the modification of admissions standards alone willdo little to produce equality in higher education. Scholarship funds fordisadvantaged students are a dire necessityfunds that are expended onthe basis of cultural as well as economic disodvantage. Many colleges anduniversities are already making provisions for such funding, as is thefederal government. through scholarship awards and work-study programs. Some state legislatures have earmarked funds to be used exclu-sively for maintaining disadvantaged students in institutions of higherlearning. But in most institutions, available funds are now so meagerthat only a small number of interested and qualified applicants can beassisted.

Furthermore, disadvantaged students usually require more fundsthan do typical college students. In addition to allowances for tuition andbooks. they commonly need grants for room and board, clothing, medicalcosts, and out-of-pocket expenses. Where these funds are not providedand the disadvantaged student is forced to remain at home while attend-ing college, it has been found that there is little chance of success becauseof the lack of study space, poor diet, and the pressures of an environmentnot congenial to academic success.

The admission of disadvantaged students to college and the satis-faction of their basic economic needs must be accompanied by realisticacademie programs. This should not be intern' eled as meaning second-rate programs or w atered-dev 71 courses. Nor does it imply the channeling

7/Roi3O.I: tow tr;coo,yr lo le, I sf.itemem on Nationalby the Rocarch and Polio Committee fonirmtiee f r I c.,nomic 1)eelopmeniYork: September 19(6). p. 27,

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of disadvantaged students into vocational-technical and paraprofessionalor semiprofessional programs. There must be careful provision thatspecial courses are equal in status to those of the curriculum in generaland that such programs give ready access to advanced academic workand the professional schools. The disadvantaged need special tutoring,courses designed to compensate for beginning deficiencies, and special-ized expert counseling. IL is often desirable that their counselors comefrom their own ethnic groups. They do not need and should not have aseparate curriculum, for this %'ould almost surely guarantee them asecond-class education.

Education must open the door to career opportunities, eitherdirectly to positions that provide satisfying work and incomes or to addi-tional schooling that will lead to the professions. It is essential that educa-tional programs for the disadvantaged keep open every avenue to highereducation.

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5.Teachers,

Instructional Systems,and Facilities

Success in the education of the disadvantagedrequires the development of total instructional sys-tems that bring together competent teachers, effcclive instructional technology, and curriculummaterials that are relevant to the interests and needsof the students.

No matter how skillfully curriculaand programs are devised. coordinated, and adapted to the special needsof the clientele, success in the education of the disadvantaged will stilldepend on the quality of instruction. The reform of central-city educationis in part the reform of teacher attitudes and methods.

The reaction of disadvantaged students to teacher expectationshas been shown to be of major importance. Indeed. one study suggeststhat almost all of the variance in learning by children front low- incomefamilies is a function of the te,;(!ter's belief that these children cannotachieve as well as others.'

Teachers influence student motivations and evechitions by suchbehavior as fluctuations in their voices or changes of facial expression.

I/Robert Rownthal and Lenore F. Licokon. (or Ibe Diothan-taged," Scicwific AFIcriom. Vol. 218. No. 4 (April 19('S). 16,

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Students may respond to these expressions with discouragement. All toooften teachers bluntly and even cruelly tell students that their abilitiesarc low. As a result, those students may make little or no effort.

Pupil achievement ha3 been shown to be directly related to theabilities and preparation of teachers. This is especially true for minority-group students. Teach abilities appear to have a cumulative effect, asthe relationship is more direct at the higher grades. These characteristicsof teachers are identified by the Coleman Report as having the strongestrelationship to pupil achievement: their scores on verbal tests, their edu-cational backgrounds. and the educational backgrounds of their parents.

Goals and Rewards

Teacher turnover is a serious problem in urban schools. Thereis a high incidence of movement from the central city to the suburbs anda high incidence of withdrawal from the teaching profession. For ex-ample, although teacher turnover in New York City as a whole has beena relatively low 10 per cent. the turnover in East Harlem has been twoto two and one-half times that rate.

The causes of teacher migration and withdrawal are more subtlethan is usually recognized. Ego satisfaction and the reward system inthe public schools are tied to goals un,ike those in most other professions.Since ordinarily there is no relationship in teiching between excellenceand remuneration. good teachers have sought other rewards. There arethree goals most commonly sought by teachers. and all three tend tolower the quality of teaching in the central city.

Migration to the suburbs after serving an apprenticeship in thecity is one of these goals. The suburbs offer newer schools, a clientelevhose values are more consistent with those of the teacher. and often agreater appreciation for professional services. Many teachers who havenot joined this migration are dedicated teachers whose decision it is

to remain in the inner city. and fortunately the number of like-mindedyounger and equally competent volunteers seems to be growing. Butmany others are there because they have been passed over by the sub-urban schools. Often they are inexperienced or are otherwise unpre-pared to meet effectively the problems of disadvantaged children.

Junior and senior high school teachers quite commonly seekstatus and satisfaction by competing for elective and advanced :curses.Teachers with seniority select trigonometry and calculus rather than gen-

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oral mathematics; journalism and the debating team rather than fresh-man grammar; and even mechanical drawing rather than woodshop. Atthe elementary level, status is often tied to teaching in the upper grades.Thus, important basic instruction is too often left to the less capable.

The third reward is "promotion" to school administration. Thatmany inner city teachers should wish to get away from the classroomcan be readily understood. According to one estimate, 50 to 80 per centof the time spent in New York City's elementary schools is devoted todiscipline and related tasks.' However, rewarding good teaching by trans-fer to administration often injures the quality of the classroom teachercorps.

Among the direct TOURS of the teacher reward system is a whole-sale dependence upon substi'ute teachers and paraprofessionals oper-ating on substandard credentials. Although statistics in this area aredifficult to obtain, New York City again provides some evidence. In arecent year, 43 per cent of all Harlem teachers either had probationarylicenses or were substitutes.

Other factors are even more basic in determining the level ofteacher effectiveness. For instance, teacher education programs attracton the average the least able of all college students. The socioeconomicbackground of teachers can also play a major role. Although teachersare no longer predominantly from middle-class families, the proportionis still high. Middle-class teachers often have difficulty relating effectivelyto disadvantaged youth. Teachers who themselves came from low-incomefamilies nay have even greater difficulty. There appears to be sonic jus-tification for the view that upwardly mobile teachers from tower economicstatus may often hold their students in low esteem. A common attitudeamong such teachers is. "I did it, why can't they?"

Training and Technology

Although there are notable and admirable exceptions. collegesof education in general have been discouraOngly slow to fulfill theirresponsibility for educating teachers in the difliL ult tasks of central-cityteaching. Even the most radical innovations in materials, tet:l,nologY.and methods can be expected to have little :fleet upon the disadvantaged

2 /Martin Deut%ch, Minority Group mid Cla%i Staruc ac R1 fared :40 Social and PersonalityFactors in Scholairic Arbielcineelt (Ith.icA: Society for Applied Anthropology. 19(0).

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if we do not change the attitudes of teachers and prepare them to employnew ideas and practices, At the present time, approximately 200 insti-tutions of higher education haw developed special programs of coursesfor the education of teachers of the poor. We ma; hope that these pro-grams will actually attack the problems and in fact give the training whichwill make the difference between success and failure in teaching the dis-advantaged. But the prospect is not entirely encouraging. These institu-tions are often inflexible in their policies and procedures and monolithicin their structure.

Because of the lack of flexibility and adaptiveness in many schoolsof education, it may be advisable to Took to new organizations to pre-pare teachers for the central city. Moreover, because the public schoolshave often been far too unresponsive to social change. it may sometimesbe necessary to bypass them in the tra;ning of teachers. New models forteacher education are being developed which deserve serious attention.For instance, autonomous agencies that would draw their staffs fromthe universities, public schools, and private organizations have beenproposed.'

More teachers and more teachers of teachers should be recruitedfrom ethnic groups in which disadvantage is high, Only those with astrong personal commitment to improving the plight of the disadvantagedare likely to sncceed as their teachers.

In addition to insuring basic teacher skills. programs for preparingteachers of the disadvantaged should have the following characteristics:

They should cultivate the teacher's knowledge and understandingof the cultural heritage, economic and social problems, and indi-vidual life styles of pupils in the central city.

They should include courses in urban sociology, cultural anthro-pology, and the psychology of the disadvantaged.

They should cultivate in the teacher a respect for the individualchild and give him a working knowledge of human behavior andhow it is affected.

They should initiate the teacher in the spirit and techniques ofinnovation and experimeni.

3/James C. Stone. -Training Teachers of the Disasisantaged: Blueprint for a Break-through," in Rrsources for Urban School's.. Bahr Usr and RaImce: CFI) SupplementaryPaper Number 33.

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They should be based on internships where trainees are in directcontact with the children with whom they will work. There mustbe direct application of knowledge and theory to practical prob-lems within the schools. Teacher education must get out of thecollege classroom and into the schools where the students are.

If education were to follow other enterprises which have reapedthe benefits of technology, it would make large gains in its ability to edu-cate the disadvantaged. With certain instructional aids, such as the com-puter, programmed lessons, teaching machines, television, ra'io, andmoving pictures, the competent teacher can often do a better job in treat-ing individual differences. It is true that these aids, while useful whencompetently employed, may be useless and even damaging when usedwithout Careful and systematic planning. Notwithstanding, we believethat instructional technology, properly employed, could assist materiallyin coping with several difficulties in the education of the disadvantaged.As the Commission on Instructional Technology points out:

Sonic observers see in instructional technology the promise ofdeveloping a comprehensive, potent teaching strategy which couldbe uniqu:ly effective with deprived and minority-group young-sters. It could actively engage them in the learning process throughall their senses and modes of awareness; it could adjust to theindividual learning style of each child; it could bring material ofrelevance and interest into the school; it could filter out the an-tagonism and indifference of some teachers; it could open theschool to the media-rich environment.'

With respect to instructional technology, the main function of1-1e teacher should be to determine what technique of learning is most

effective in the individual case and to provide direction, motivation, antstimulation. A proper use of instructional technology should make aschool more rather than less human by multiplying opportunities forpersonal contact arid consulting.

Ilere we should recognize the almost limitless possibilities of edu-cational television as a medium of instruk.lion, considering the success ofcarefully planned and produced programs and the length of time which

4/U.S. Commission on 1;mruelional Technology, To lorrrme Lcarethy: A Rcrort to thcPre.cicfcm ard the Cow re5s of the United St 11,s (Washington, D.C.: U.S. CioscrnmentPrinting Office, 1970), pp. 99-100.

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the average child spends in front of a television screen (estimated to befifteen to twenty hours a week). In our policy statement on Innovationin Education: New Directions for the American School, we described indetail th, potentials of instructional television along with other audio-visual media as teaching instruments within the classroom. But this isnot to ignore the great promise that lies in the development of educationaltelevision programs going directly into the child's home. We have men-tioned "Sesame Street" as a particularly outstanding example of whatcan be accomplished in educational television, and we encourage experi-mentation along such lines.

Many disadvantaged children go through school without ever ex-periencing success, a situation that greatly damages their self-images andcontributes to continued failure. This condition is not likely to changebasically unless there is a lc .ge-scale breakthrough in traditional atti-tudes and practices. Few teachers are inclined to reinforce correct re-sponses when the individual student is at the bottom of his class in abilityand performance. All too often, improvement by a poor student is notrewarded. However, instructional technology, properly employed, canprovide this important favorable feedback by programs geared to low-achieving students. Programs can be designed to accommodate to a child'soptimum learning rate and to reinforce his learning as he proceeds. Theprogram is not recalcitrant, does not lack in patience, and does not re-mind the student that he is holding back the rest of the class

When the child realizes that he possesses essential skills andknowledge and has a strong self-image, he tends to achieve a sense ofsome power over his future. Ile can develop a feeling of mastery overprograms. 1:onsoles. and computers. Nothing breeds success like success;satisfactory work comes in part through achieving satisfaction.

Teacher education programs should be designed to meet the spe-cial demands of urban teaching. Education for prospective inner-cityteachers will succeed best if it involves experience in the communitieswhere they are to teach. Qualified minority group members should beactively recruited as teachers of teachers and for teaching positions inurban schools. To provide successful models for minority children, spe-cial efforts should be made to recruit male minority group persc is to serveboth as teachers and as paraprofessionals.

Extra incentives should be offered in the form of paid internshipsfor teachers who select careers in urban education. Differentiated staffingpatterns and salaries should be established in urban schools to providesuperior inner -city teachers with incentive goals and rewards. The present

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lock-step salary schedules do not encourage dynamic and innovativeteaching and are ill suited to promoting teaching as a career.

Success in the education of the disadvantaged will require the de-velopment of instructional systems that bring together competent teach-ers, the mast effective instructional technology, and curriculum materialsthat are relevant to the experience and needs of the students. To reap thetechnological benefits already enjoyed by industry and communications,the schools must develop instructional systems which provide teacherswith the instruments essential to individualizing instruction while at thesame time radically improving general instructional quality.

Sites and Facilities

The Coleman Report found that variations in facilities and cur-ricula seem to account for relatively little variation in pupil ach:evementas measured by standardized tests. It may be true that old and dilapidatedbuildings are of relatively minor importance in directly affecting testresults, but this ignores the important considerations of student andteacher attitudes. Buildings take on considerable importance when theindirect impact on children is assessed in terms of such matters as thelong-term effect on teacher recruitment and the psychological impact onschool personnel. Moreover, the positive effect of dean, attractive, mod-ern buildings upon children accustomed to crowded and perhaps depress-ing environments hardly can be overlooked.

In 16 of the nation's largest cities. nearly 600 elementary schoolsand more than 50 junior and senior high schools built before the turn ofthe century are still in regular use. Another 700-plus elementary schoolsand more than 160 secondary schools in these same ^sties were built priorto 1920.5

Age alone will not render a building unsuitable for school use,but most of these schools mere designed around the educational and so-cietal attitudes and interests of another era. In these "egg-crate" schools.with their dark halls and standardized rooms and equipment, educationtends to be locked into the traditional pattern of thirty or more pupils ina classroom all day. (wry day. in the elementary schools or, in the second-ary schools. into a pattern of "musical boxes."

5/Harold 13. Gores. "Lducalional Facilities for the Urban Diodsantascd," in Resozacesfor Urban Schools.- Beller Use and Balance. CFI) Supplementary Paper Number 33.

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Both educational quality and economy of construction and opera-tion require buildings that can be adjusted to accommodate changingfunctions. One promising innovation is the systems approach to schoolconstruction. Systems construction involves the development of modular,pre-engineered components with which better schools may be built fasterand more economically. A key requirement in the systems projects to datehas been the design of components to allow for change. Structural com-ponents provide long, clear spans free of interior support. Into the struc-ture is plugged a heating-ventilating-cooling system, a ceiling-and-light-ing system, and interior partitions, all of which can be easily and econom-ically rearranged to allow for changes in educational programs.

In the past few years, exciting new ideas have developed in archi-tectural planning. These include the linear school, which may featurecombined occupancy (space for businesses and social agencies); the so.called classrooms without walls; and the educational park.

The linear school, utilizing air rights, is an attempt to build overand under municipal thoroughfares with t'oe intent of countering therapidly rising land costs in the central cities. The possibilities of joint oc-cupancyincorporating commercial establishments, community facili-ties, and schools in one physical plantdeserve careful study as a meansof beating schools at acceptable costs where they are needed. Air rightsinvolve difficult and often costly engineering problems, but these costsusually are more than offset by savings in the costs of condemnation. re-location of tenants, and demolition of conventional urban school sites.In addition, when air rights are used, the city avoids the long-term lossof revenue Isually occasioned by the removal of school sites from taxrolls. The linear school concept conies to grips with not one but severalurban problems: land shortage, inadequate transportation. blightedneighborhoods, school segregation, and housing shortage. among others.

The classroom-without-walls concept accompanies team teachingand flexible scheduling. in which class periods and instructional arrange-ments vary. In this design. classrooms are arranged in large clusters ofthree or four classes. combining resources in teaching personnel andmaterials. Within such open spaces. usually carpeted. pupils can be easilyand unobtimi vely grouped and revrouped according to their individualneeds and abilities. The new teaching patternsinvolving team :caching.teacher assistants. nongradcd instruction. and instructional resourcecentersarc facilitated and encouraged by this type of school architecture.

Educational parks combine on the same acreage elementaryschools. junior high schools. and high schools. An advantage here is the

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possible reduction of de facto segregation, although economies in sup-porting services and materials also may be important benefits .6

Modernization of existing schools is one option available to edu-cators attempting to relieve overcrowding and update their educationalprograms. Every city has a supply of abandoned offices, warehouses, andeven factory buildings that are suitable for conversion into educationalfacilities at costs far below those involved in building new schools. Usuallythe benefits realized through renovation are numerous. Such facilitiescan often be designed to support effective innovations that would be dif-ficult or impossible in conventional buildings. In Harlem, for example, aschool for dropouts is operating in a converted supermarket. The con-version of warehouses into schools with flexible facilities is already ar.accomplished fact in some cities. Scores of urban colleges and univer-sities have a long history of housing academic programs successfully inconverted buildings. Whatever their shortcomings, the old convertedWorld War II barracks supplied excAleM academic space for a quarterof a century. Often such space proved more flexible and useful than thatprovided by many of the permanent buildings that have replaced it.

School officials should recognize the relevance of school sites tothe task of racial integration and the importance of school architectureto the variable functions necessary to effective instruction.

6/Thomas F. Pettigrew, "The Educational Park Concept." in Resources for UrbanSchools: Beeler Use and Balance. CED Supplementary Paper Number 33.

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6.New Concepts

of Accountabilityand Control

The schools should be held accountable for theirproduct. Accountability requires greater participa-tion by the patrons of the school in decisions (*cl-ing the education of their children.

We strongly endorse the principle ofaccountability in education. Although this principle promises to be acontroversial matterwith success depending on extensive study, discus-sion, and experienceits mandate seems inescapable. The accountabilityprinciple has already been voiced by the Congress, for instance, in sup-porting the National Assessment of Educational Progress program, ini-tiated by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.' The President en-dorsed it in his 1970 message to the Congress on education reform, andnumerous school districts have begun new accountability procedures. Webelieve that the Congress. state legislatures. and the general public shouldinsist that the schools be held accountable for their work. Unless thisis done, our people 1% ill never get full value for their investment in edu-cation.

1/1talph NV. Tyler, "The Problems and Possibilities of Educational Es..Ination." in The,5( hools and chr (INA of In' oi otiorr, (ED Supplementary Paper Number 25. 1969.pp. 7(, -90.

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For decades the Congress and state legislatures have respondedto troublesome educational problems by providing additional funds. Un-til quite recently individual taxpayers have generally been willing tovote additional tax levies. But now both voters and their elected rep-resentatives are increasingly dismayed by the apparent inability of theeducational establishment to solve some of our basic educational prob-lems. Recent state and local elections have recorded more negative re-actions to educational bond and funding issues than are found in anyprevious period.

Educators too often have rationalized poor school performanceby labeling students "slow," "unmotivated," or "retarded." They haveconvinced themselves that the fault is not theirs, for some children simplycannot learn. But the facts are that much of the teacher's energy that goesinto teaching the disadvantaged in urban schools and much of the moneythat finally get, to these schools is wasted on ineffective, traditional pro-cedures. More of the same old thing will not cure the ills of education.

The call for accountability demands radically new approachesto the educational process. First, the principle of accountability movesthe focus of education from teaching to learning, since outputs rather thaninputs are its measure. Second, the schools will be unable simply to citethe number of graduates going on to college as their evidence of success,but rather will be expected to answer for the achievement of all theirstudents. Third, the schools will be required to cnrrelate the costs andbenefits of specific programs.

That the school should be held accountable for its product is a

justifiable demand of parents, who arc no longer willing to accept theexplanation that their children cannot learn because their homes andneighborhoods are disadvantaged. It is the demand that a child be taughtto read in spite of his disadvantage indeed. because of it. V. e are con-vinced that the financial support of the schools should in some way betied to their actual productivity, so that a better product. when judgedby competent techniques of assessment, would ) ield increased support.If this were achieved. we believe that the schools would become moreinventive. more innovative. more effective. and more productive of goodeducation.

We believe that holding schools accountable for their performanceis essential to success in the education of the disadvantaged. and we areconfident that principles and techniques for applying the requirement ofaccountability' can be developed and applied successfully. As we havesaid. this is a difficult task that will require much thought and experiment,

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and its success will depend on both variety and flexibility. It will dependamong other things, on strong national, state, and local assessmentsthe educational outputs of the schools.

We do not propose here to set forth any particular scheme forestablishing accountability to fit all schools at all places and times. Toillustrate a few possible modes, we call attention to the proposals of aleading advocate of accountability, Leon M. Lessinger, who has sug-gested several procedures to assist in establishing accountability.'

The first of these is performance contracts under which privatecontractors guarantee to bring students who are below grade level up tonormal performance at a given cost and in a given time. Usually the con-tractor would agree to be paid only on the basis of a stipulated amountfor each student who successfully completes the training program. Hewould be assessed a penalty for those students who do not achieve specificminimum performance levels.

A second proposal is the independent accomplishment audit,under which student accomplishments would be evaluated (audited) byan independent agency_ The process would be similar to the independentfiscal audit that has contributed to improved management techniques inbusiness and government. In the accomplishment audit, the focus wouldbe upon student attitudes, skills, and knowledge.

Still another procedure involves developmental capital, which isthe money set aside by school personnel for activities that produce theresults described in independent accomplishment audits. The basic pur-pose of developmental capital is to provide a financial resource to stimu-late and sustain re-examination and modernization of the educationalsystem. It is, in effect, risk capital. Developmental capital is not a newidea; in fact, it already exists at the state level in the form of funds underTitle HI and Title V of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

The schools must be held accountable for thOr product. Specialeducational programs for the disadvantaged should be funded only whereevaluations have been designed to identify concrete results and the con-ditions necessary for achieving those results. Programs and program corn-ponents producing superior results in terms of student achievement orattitudes should serve as prototypes for future funding. Governmentfunding of experimental programs should require appropriate assessmentof results.

2 /Leon M 1..v_singer, "Accountability in Education," in Resources for Urban Schools:Biller an4 Balance, CED Supplementary Paper Number 33.

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Increasing Local Participation

Accountability is also coming to have another and very vital mean-ing for the parents of poor childrenaccountability in their terms mean-ing tangible results in the form of a relevant education for their children,taught by people who are sympathetic and understanding. To bring thisabout, these parents are insisting on more participation in the decisionsthat affect their lives and the lives of their children. There was a time whenthey were satisfied with peripheral school involvement. Now the issueis their inclusion in the educational power structure. The question is notwhether they should be a part of the decision-making process of theschools. Rather it is a question of the proper degree and nature of theirpower, of the way in which it can be established, and :Low it can be ex-erted effectively.

In our large urban centers, bureaucracy has interposed a barrierseparating the school from its patrons. Futhennore, competent observ-ers are in almost unanimous agreement that many of the larger city schooldistricts should be decentralized in the interest of efficiency. Some formof decentralization is essential, and districts that have already begun de-centralization should continue their experiments in this direction.

It should be obvious, however, that a segmentation of a large cityinto numerous completely independent and autonomous small districtscould create insuperable problems in both administration and instruction.Professional bargaining and purchasing, for instance, require for effic-iency a general organizatiunal structure and operation. And the basiceducational pursuits that tie the schools together as a common enter-prise (e.g., instruction for literacy) could be grossly injured by any seg-mentation that would isolate individual schools.

While arguing for the decentralization of large city districts. werecognize that the common problem of school systems, when the wholenation is considered, is smallness rather than bigness. There is greatneed to consolidate small districts into more efficient larger ones. It hasbeen pointed out. for example, that each of the new districts created byNew York City's decentralization plan is larger than all but one districtin the state outside the city.

The problem of school control is how to maintain general super-vision and control \Oene these are essential and establish local partici-pation and control where these will strengthen tt,e schools by better per-ceptions of need and purpose and by improving the substance of instruc-tion. We favor local control in the sense of Pequate involvement of a

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school's community in the determination of school policy. Local controlshould be established to the degree necessary to insure the relevance ofthe schools to the problems and experience of those instructed and makethem effective agents in the transformation of neighborhood and com-munity life.

In considering this question, however, one must take into accountthe whole structure of American education, which comprises leder% andstate as well as city governments having interrelated roles in financing, re-search, and other functions. We do not favor local control as meaning theseparation of schools into autonomous institutions, or even into verysmall completely autonomous districts, which we believe would leadonly to confusion and even greater frustration. The limits of local controlshould be set and enforced by the larger district authority with localelements fully represented. This will never be a simple or easy matterto negotiate.

The optimum size for a school district is a question. Bigness oftencontributes to efficiency and many things are possible in large districtsthat are not feasible in small districts. Nevertheless, giant districts in-crease the impersonality of school bureaucracy and alienate the citizensof disadvantaged areas by their social distance and apparent indifference.Blacks and Mexican-Americans often see large school bureaucracy asa social or political tool of the white middle-class establishment. Districtsshould be designed to achieve the human advantage of smallness withinthe framework of efficient bigness. Their size should be gauged to pro-vide maximum concern for the interests, needs. and effective participa-tion of the community.

It is imyerative that minorities be represented on boards, councils,and commissions with rule-making powers and that there be larger minor-ity representation in superintendents' and principals' chairs. We believe,however. that such representation will only be a partial step toward asolution to the problem of effective participation of minorities in thedecision-making process. In the long run, black power. brown power, orany other minority power with respect to the schools or any other socialinstitution must be established basically and firmly by an equitable repre-sentation of the minority populations in the decision-making offices ofthe nationin Congress, in state legislatures. This kind of involvementin policy making can contribute to a genuinely integrated society.

Much can be accomplished in school affairs through participa-tion and policy determination by citizens' groups and parent-teacher or-ganizations, Often such organizations need revamping and revitalizing

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to become effective centers of influence in educational matters ratherthan simply social outlets or platforms for complaint oratory. Too oftenthese organizations are ignored by administrators, who should seriouslyseek advice and assistance from them. This does not mean, however, anabandonment of professional expertise and supervision. The services ofthe experts are always essential. But education should not be the exclu-sive province of professionals. whose task relates primarily to the meansand methods of achieving goals. The determination of goals is a taskespecially for laymen.

The community school was once the community center; thereshould be a return to this function. Schools should be in constant usefrom early morning to late evening, serving the community at large inprograms ranging from children's recreation to continuing adult educa-tion. The common practice of utilizing school facilities only during for-mal schooi hours is wasteful in both money and unrealized social andcultural benefits.

Moreover, the school should not be subject to the constraints ofthe old school calendar. The opening and closing of regular classesshould not coincide with planting cotton or picking, fruit. The traditionalcalendar may still make some sense in some rural areas, but certainly notin urban schools. The urban school should be open around,the clock andaround the calendar.

Local participation in the determination of school policy does notmean that state and national interests are not being served. Nor does itmean that regional accreditation, state standards on teacher certification,or state involvement in curriculum design are not both desirable andnecessary. It is the genius of the American education al structure that theconstitutional system of basic sate authority and responsibility for theschools has made possible the pursuit of local state, and national pur-poses and goals

The decentralization of large districts and the establishment oflimited local control recuire the development of governing principles thatwill ensure an effective balance of central with local control and the es-tablishment of agencies capable of supervising effectively the a pplicat:of those principles. Such agencies might be stale review boards that would( ) carefully observe the formation of local districts to guard against suchpractices as gerrymandering to further segregation, (2) review the budgetat the point of the division of central and locally controlled funds, and(3) review the curriculum in the interest of a satisfactory balance of localand general elements.

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In view of such considerations, we urge school governing boardsand administrators to solicit both formal and informal community partici-pation in the determination of school policies and programs and to es-tablish policies and procedures that will make that participation both pos-sible and effective. The nation can no longer tolerate conditions that pre-vent minorities from effective power in matters which determine theirown destinies.

While we urge the decentralization of large urban districts to makethem more responsive to the disadvantaged communities, we believe thatacross the country generally there is still need for the consolidation ofsmall school districts. The school should be reestablished as the centerof local community activity for the entire day and the entire year.

Developing Alternative Instructional Patterns

There is no single best way to organize an educational programor to instruct a group of students. Competition in both ideas and practiceshould yield good results. This competition may be generated within aschool or between schools. or it may result from the entry into educa-tion of private agencies. Such competition may generate the thrust neces-sary to produce desirable changes in the educational establishment thatare otherwise virtually impossible. The schools of the future must offermore alternatives and options than they provide at present.

One strategy under examination and trial is to increase the numberof proprietary schools and allow parents to select the schools for theirchildren to attend. Considerable attention is being given to systems underwhich vouchers would be issued to parents who would cash them in atthe schools of their choice. Ceilings would be established on tuition andfees chargeable under this system. Though there would probably be someresulting improvement in the quality of education, past experience withprivate schools indicates the possibility of even greater segregation whenstudent bodies are self-selected. Granting tuition payments in inverseproportion to family income and wealth and making such payments onlyto the children of the poor might overcome this effect.

Another and more promising alternative to traditional practice.which we have already mentioned. is contracting with private firms cap-able of providing specialized educational services within the public schoolstructure. Such firms might conduct courses in remedial reading and

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mathematics, provide counseling, produce programs for courses, or per-form other important specialized functions. In fact, some private agenciesare already offering such services and are guaranteeing results.

Experiments now in operation show clearly that private industryis sometimes both willing and capable of assisting in improving our edu-cational institutions. For example, Illinois Bell has supplied personnel,equipment, and facilities to help improve the quality of education ininner-city Chicago schools. Michigan Bell has adopted an entire highschool for the purpose of helping to prepare students for the job market.In Cleveland, General Electric has donated a large factory building,located in a poor area, for use as a school-factory that offers paid employ-ment, basic and remedial education, and training in job skills under oneroof.

Kenneth Clark has proposed a variety of educational patternsthat we regard as worthy of careful consideration. He suggests that theeducational system of the future might be composed of various kinds ofinstitutions inch ding regional state schools, federal regional schools,college and university-related schools, industrial demonstration schoolssponsored by private enterprise, labor union sponsored schools, armyschools, educational parks, and linear schools.

Competent business, voluntary agencies, and nonprofit enterprisesshould be encouraged to join with the schools in developing alternativeeducational patterns. The schools should be given contracting powersthat Bill enable them to contract with private agencies for accomplish-ing specialized tasks. We encourage experimentation in varying degreesof public school involvement by qualified elements of the private sector.Contracts let to private agencies, whether profit or nonprofit, should beon a full accountability basis only.

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7.Equalizing

School ResourcesEqualization in the distribution of school resourceshas become a necessity for the urban schools, whichdespite higher costs must function with less moneythan their suburban counterparts. There must bebasic transformations in the method of financingthe schools.

hc effort to achieve equality of edu-cational opportunity will require larger school expenditures in disad-vantaged areas than elsewhere. Yet central-city school districts are ex-pected to function with less money per pupil than their suburban counter-

parts.The crux of this problem is the too great reliance on the property

tax for the financing of schools and local government services. In prac-tice, this tax has been notoriously heavier on improvements than on land,and it has been unevenly assessed on both. The property tax base of thecities is steadily eroded by the deterioration of buildings; by the locationof freeways, greenbelts. and public housing: and by the movement ofindustry and well-to-do families to the suburbs. Meanwhile, growth inthe costs of urban services are accelerated with the increase in the propor-tion of welfare clients and other "high cost" .:itizens and by the impactof inflation.

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The result is that inner-city and poor school districts with thegreatest proportion of disadvantaged children have the least financial re-sources. Moreover, as will be shown later, state and federal support foreducation generally discriminates against central cities in the distribu-tion of funds. Rather than offsetting the disparities between central-cityand suburban educational finance, this aid from higher levels of govern-ment tends to increase these disparities.

We must face the fact that the problem of achieving good edu-cation for the disadvantaged means a complete reappraisal and reorder-ing of financial resources to match needs. Revenues should be distributedto reflect priorities and should not be based on the haphazard distributionof property values.

The High Costs of Urban Education

The cities must provide massive educational services in order toplace their disadvantaged children on a par with more advantaged subur-ban peers. All the special programs for the disadvantaged mentionedin this statement tend to be more costly than programs ordinarily requiredfor other children. This is certainly true of compensatory and remedialprograms. More youths in the inner city are enrolled in technical-voca-tional courses than in the suburbs, and the cost of such programs is esti-mated to be generally 35 per cent higher than the cost of academic highschool courses)

The urban schools are expected to accept responsibility for theconsequences of society's failure. They must provide more diagnostic,health, and food services to the inner city child to help him achieve his!earning potential. Programs for the physically and mentally handi-capped are particularly costly, and the cities have disproportionate num-bers of such children. For example. the eight cities of Rhode Island had58 per cent of the state's public school enrollment in [965 but 76 percent of its mentally utarded children. Inner-city school systems also havehigh child-care, truancy. and similar costs. and the need for securityforces within the schools is a rapidly rising cost. often borne by the schoolsystem. The high degree of transiency and population mobility in theinner city also creates extra counseling. staff. and other costs.

I/It is further estioatecl that only. ;bout 10 per cent of this in CeSS cosered by stateand federal categorical grants. Sc e Charles S. Benson, 711efronoinics at Public Edu-cation, Second edition (Boston: Houghton Nliftlin, 19(+8), p. 321.

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Furthermore, high costs in the cities mean that tax dollars buyfewer educational facilities and services than they do in the suburbs.Costsfor land, construction, and insurance are higher in the inner city thanelsewhere. In the twenty-one largest American cities, the average costper acre for school sites $68,156 compared to $3,074 in other districts.'Wages and salaries for both instructional staffs and ancillary services arealso generally higher in the citics.

Will increased school expenditures in poor districts improve edu-cational achievements? It appears that except where funds have beenused for specific programs tn help correct educational cleficiences, thereis no certain or consistent relationship between expenditures and schooleffectiveness. It is known, for instance, that boys from low-income homesin higher expenditure schools accumulate more knowledge than theircountf!;:parts in low expenditure schools. Comparisons of the achieve-ment scores of boys in school districts spending less than $200 with thosedistricts spending between $200 and $300 show a difference of morethan a full year in performance. The effects of increased spending at thelower levels are encouraging. However, increased expenditures at the$400.$500 and over $500 levels do not show the same gains per dollar.'

Nevertheless, even though increased funding is in itself no guar-antee of more effective schooling for the disadvantaged, without ade-quate funding schools with disadvantaged children have little hope ofestablishing programs that can be effective.

The Overburdened Tax Base

Education is by no means the only high-cost claim on urbanfinancial resources. Decay and other problems in urban centers requirethe expenditure of 69 per cent of local public funds for noneducationalpurposes compared to 47 per cent for such purposes in the suburbs. Thecities most bear to an exceptional degree the costs arising from conges-tion. including, especially the heavy social welfare services for familysupport and health purposes that are associated with the la:ge numbersof disadvantaged residents who populate the inner cities. This so-called

2 /George B. Brain, "Pressures on the Urban School,- in A! in lotlIcr, csi, 7hr School-houce in the Cny (New York: Praeger, 19(68), p. 41.

3/ThOnlaN I. Rihich, Lthocolion and Pcntriy (Washington, Brookings Institution,1968), pp. 86-87.

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"municipal overburden" represents a claim on city resources that reducesthe amount cities can allocate to the schools in contrast with their suburbs,which do not have equivalent demands.

The central cities' over-all expenditures on governmental servicesare about $50 more per citizen than the suburbs, but $50 Less per citizenfor education.' This results in a per student differential in expendituresof $124, or 30 per cent. This differential is, of course, partly the result ofreliance on property taxation to finance schools. Considering one ex-ample, the amount of taxable proFetty per resident pupil in Michigan in1965-66 ranged from $1,319 in the poorest district to $53,000 in therichest.' Thus, to raise similar revenues in the two districts would haverequired a 'ax rate forty times higher in the poorer district.

The Fteadily worsening fiscal position of the central cities vis-a-vis the suburbs is summed up in the report of the Task Force on UrbanEducation, better known as the Riles Report: "Not only has the incomebase of the central cities been depressed relative to the suburbs but, inaddition, the city property tax base has generally grown at a much slowerrate than has the property tax base of metropolitan areas as a whole. ...In sum, the increase in gross assessed valuation in the suburbs far out-strips that of central cities." To which the report adds, "It is significantto note that between 1930 and 1960, per pupil education costs acrossthe country rose at a rate more than three times as fast as the average percapita value of taxable property in large cities."'

The urgency of this situation cannot be overstressed. The heavyreliance on the property tax has made school systems highly vulnerableto taxpayer revolts against rising budgets, greatly hampering the opera-tions of major school systems and even in sonic cases forcing curtailmentof the school year. In the past few years. voters have turned down moreschool bond issues and levies than during any previous period. It shouldbe added that this situation is endemic not only in the large cities but insuburban areas as NVCii.

4/11arold Ilovie It. '1 he City as eosher: in Akin Tolller, ed., TIP,, .5(hiiifimi,ce in rlieCity (New York: Praeger, 1968), p. 14.

5/Michigan Stale Board of Education, Rankine of Alkliigan 1)iotictsSciccted Financial 1)01,1, /945-66. Bulletin 1012 (Liirr..ng: January 1967).

6/1.3 S. Tack loice on Urban Fdirea!ion. llrr tithail 1.:(Incalioli Task Force Repot!: OralR(J,( (rn 11tr 1)..paPonint of Ifrollh. and Wellarc: Wilkon C. Rllcc, (11,,jrman. (New York: Pr.ieger, 1970). Iy,. 29, 35.

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Aid to Schools: Unequal and Misdirected

The pattern of sharing the school financial burden by the dif-ferent levels of government has not shifted dramatically in the past twodecades. It is estimated that in 1971 the division of fiscal responsibilityin the nae on for elementary and secondary education was 52.0 per centlocal, 41.1 per cent state, and 6.9 per cent federal. True, the federal con-tribution has increased over this period, but the federal share has neverbeen great, ranging from about 3 per cent of the total in 1950 to a highof 8 per cent in 1968. The state contribution has remained relatively un-changed at about 40 per cent, and though the local share has droppedfrom about 57 per cent in 1950, it is still roughly half the total. Of course,the actual dollar amounts flowing from all levels of government haverisen sharply in order to accommodate the enormously increased cost ofpublic elementary and secondary education, estimated at $42,4 billionnationally in 1971.'

Supplementary support from higher levels of government has beenjustified on the basis of meeting minimum funding needs. In fact, how-ever, the distribution of school funds from higher levels of governmenttends to aggravate rather than redress the inequities created in the firstplace by the reliance on the property tax.

Due to the workings of state education formulas, the averageamount of assistance for suburban districts is substantially greater thanthat for city districts. It is impossible to obtain current data, but in 1962,for the country as a whole, per capita state aid to education in the centralcities was $20,73, while in suburban areas it was $37.66. On a per-student basis the gap is even more striking. For example, in the year 1966-67 for New York State's six metropolitan areas, the average differencebetween educational aid to the central cities in those areas and to theschool districts in the rest of the counties was $100 per pupil. Aid to theschool district of New 'or): City was $319 per pupil, while for thecounties of Nassau, Rockland. Suffolk. and WestchcF.er average aid Was

$453 per pupil.'

A 1969 study of the distribution of federal funds revealed that anexcessively large portion of federal monies earmarked for the disad-

7/Estimates from National Education Association.8/Reshaping Government in Metropolitan Arar. A Statement on National Policy by the

Research and Policy Committee, Committee for Economic Development (New Yo :k:February 1970), p. 36.

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vantaged of the urban centers is frequently misdirected to the suburbs.9Furthermore, internal audits of school-by-school funding patterns

within cities consistently have disclosed that fewer dollars are spent inschools educating poor children and minority children than in the schoolsattended by their white middle-class counterparts. The constituencies ofthe poor have been shortchanged in the distribution of school monies.

A special problem exists in the Southwest, where frequently schooldistricts are not autonomous political units but rather sub-units of munic-ipal or county governments. These school districts are often gerryman-dered to form almost totally Mexican-Ainericar districts. Within thesedistricts, remedial education is sometimes almost sent lymous with Mexi-can-American education. Here again, federal monies designated for thedisadvantaged often find their way to middle- and upper-L ass urban andsuburban districts.

Better supervision and more equitable distribution of federalmonies is clearly indicated. However, in view of the magnitude of stateaid, there is no possibility of achieving equality of a satisfactory level ofschool financiiig without slaty equalization legislation.

State Responsibility for Schooling

Basically, the states are responsible for public schooling. They de-termine what can be taught; who shall be qualified to serve as adminis-trators, counselors. and teachers in the schools: how schools shall befinanced. Taxes eollectiA for the schools, whether obtained at state orlocal levels, are le.,eied by state authority. Local soh col districts are gen-erally considered to be quasi-corporations of the states or instrumentali-ties whose powers and obi igations derive from the iate.10

In oui policy statement on Payinp, for Boiler Public Schools, thisCommittee oullined a "foundation" program to suppot t local schooling.It called for .specification of the type and quality of school services thatshould, as a minimum, be available to students throughout the state ...determination of the costs of providing these services, and establishmentof a method for distributing state funds in such a way as to make it pos-sihle k. every school district to provide at least the foundation level ofeducation from these and its own funds." Such aid should reflect rising

9/Henry U. Levin, "Financirv; Education for the U'han Disativatitaged," in Resourcesfor 1.",lan Sel'ools: Belle.. GR.and Balance, CED Supplementary Paper Number 33.

10/Henry M. Lev, op. cit.

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school costs and especially the high cost of special programs for thedisadvantaged.

In A Fiscal Program for a Balanced Federalism we again calledupon the states to assume a greater responsibility for financing educationand welfare, either through direct expenditures or grants-in-aid, in orderto help equalize and improve the ability of local governments to meettheir financial needs in these fields." We also warned against continuedand deeper reliance upon the ,ederal government. advising that federalspending is vulnerable to political factors and may he restrained by otherrequirements upon the federal dollar. However, it s, ems apparent thatuntil the federal government does more to relieve the states of the finan-cial burdens of national interest programs, such as welfare, increasedfederal aid will be required to assist those schools which face the greatesteducational problems.

In regard to the property tax itselfthe source of almost 90 percent of local tax revenue we have made various recommendations aimedat remedying inequities and making the tax more productive. These haveincluded the following recommendations: ( I ) States should accept MIresponsibility for assuring statewide equitable and uni rot m assessment ofreal property; (2) assessment ratios of all classes of real property, includ-ing land, should be equalized on the basis of market value; (3) limita-tions on local powers over property tax rates and debts should be removedfrom state constitutions and. where desirable, should be imposed only by

statute; and (4) states should utilize other more elastic sources of revenueand should facilitate their use by localities (e.g., by piggy-backing localsupplements to statewide sales and incowe taxes).

The State of Hawaii oilers i,n example of full state responsibilityfor school financing. The schools arc funded front statewide sources,including a state levy on property that is assessed for this purpose by thestate. The effect ;s to avoid the uneven taxation of property for educa-tional purposes and the tax havens found in many states. A further benef.iis the assurance of a reasonably professional administration of assess-ment processes.

Michigan recently has attempted substantial revisions of the cn-tile tax and financing structure as it affects education. Th;., governor hassuggested sweeping reforms to shift the burden of finance to the state fromlocal taxation districts. 1 he gmerne?.'s Select Commission on liduca-

11/A Fiscal Program fors Ilalam-cri ferleral,,m, A Statement on National Policy by theRev..arch and Policy Clommittee, Cominitt;e for l'conomie Development (New York:June 1967), pp. 31-33.

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tional Reform in 1969 recommended among other things (1) a uniformstatewide property tax; (2) school accountability for educational prod-ucts; (3) drastic improvement in property assessment techniques; (4)statewide salaries for teachers, to be adjusted on a cost-of-living basis;and (5) district rights to vote more taxes for education, except that result-ing funds are not to be used for leacher salaries. We believe the Hawaiiand Michigan examples in financing merit careful study by other states.

Five actions are essential if the financial plight of the central-cityschools is to be ov 'n.come:

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The assumption by the sates of the responsibility for providingequality on a reasonable level of educational opportunity,

The adoption by the states of }ore effective and equitable rev-enue syst.,ms taking into account ability to pay,

The equitable distribution of state assistan ,e to satisfy real need,

Increased federal funds to provide more adequa resources formeeting the special costs of educating the disadvantaged and amore just distribution of these resources,

Requirement by state governments of school-by-school reportingof budgetary allocations to ensure that Inner -city schools and pro-grams for the disadvantaged receive their fair share of funds that

otherwise are diverted elsewhere.

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8.Research,

Development,and Application

Continued resea..ch is necessary to provide theground for developing effective methods a:id ma-terials for educating the disadvantaged.

Ii research necessary for educationin general, it is doubly important for the education of the disadvantaged.Here there is need not only for greatly increased knowledge of the learn-ing process and the techniques of effective instruction. There is equalneed for understanding human aspiration and motivation, the sentimentof self-esteem, or the impact of the experience:, of infancy on rates oflearning. The scientific foundations of education must be expanded toprovide a more comprehensive coverage of relevant sociological andanthropological as well as psychological problems. We are just beginningto appreciate, for example, the tremendous impact of the child's earlyenvironment on the do elopment of his intellect and character. Continuedresearch and experiment should open up many avenues and some of theseshould move us toward success.

Meanwhile, some things have been clearly learned. In early child-hood education it has been establiFlied, for instance. that low pupil-

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teacher ratios are essential and that small groups should be employedoften. Objectives must be clearly defined and made the basis of instruc-tional materials. Teachers must receive training specifically related tothe tasks before them, and parents must become positively involved withtheir children's schooling. It is also now evident, as we have noted, thatprograms of brief duration are not effective. Nor are those programseffective that involve simply the addition of equipment or personnelwhere the practices used have been shown to be ineffectual.

Another example of recent experimentation illustrates the po:;-sibilities for new approaches to learning. Sixth graders were appointedon an experimental basis to serve as tutors for kindergarten childrenfrom disadvantaged neighborhoods. While almost all the high-achievingtutors showed high morale, good attendance, and improvement in read-ing skills, it was the low-achieving tutors upon whom the program madeits most important impact. These low achievers made significant gainsin their own learning. Meanwhile, the learning rate of the children wasapparently unrelated to the achievement levels of their sixth-grade tutors.

There is no single best way to teach disadvantaged children, butadapting the method to individual differences is the key strategy. Thisrequires a recognition of the differences in learning styles. The NationalAdvisory Council on the Education of Disadvantaged Children, for ex-ample, points out that "young learners, particularly those whose back-ground experiences we classify as disadvantaged, need an abundance ofsensory and motor experiences dealing with concrete objects before theyproceed to abstract learning. These experiences may he with constructiontoys and games, Pimple science gear, pegboards, wooden squares andtriangles, or with any of a number of manipulative objects around whichlanguage, arithmetic, and science abstractions can be built."' Teachingthe monetary system effectively is aided by the use of coins and pra::ticein making change. If stories arc read, there must he picturesmeaningfulpictures. Teaching about the relationships of people with each otherrequires role playing or some other technique which involves eie childrenpersonally. By employing near and famil:, r materials the school canbetter motivate the child and also help him to cope more successfully withthe abstract concepts essential to intellectual growth.

Knowledge of this kind is moving us well along the road to anunderstanding of what we mutt do to produce a true learning environ-

1/U.S. National Advisory Council on the Education of Disadvantaged Children, AnnualRepon, p. 11.

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ment for all children. For It is increasingly apparent that much of whatis being learned in the effort to educate disadvantaged children will re-dound to the benefit of all children.

Among the causes of our school failures with the disadvantagedhas been our failure thus far to evaluate effectively the concrete resultsof experimental programs. Often we do not know the causes of good orbad results, nor indeed do we always know what results are desirable.By using the sh,,tgun approach in searching for solutions, we are usuallyunable to identify the specific causes of improvements where they occur.Even where the data arc available, we sometimes do not know whichcomponents of multifaceted programs have made the difference. Anillustration is the Higher Horizems project in New York City, which hasalready been mentioned. Here some encouraging gains have been re-ported, but causes and effects have not been clearly established; whereeffective relationships could be drawn, broad applications of new knowl-edge and techniques have seldom occurred. Everywhere there are experi-mental projects, but in few places are these more than prototypes.

A valuable experimental model on an exceptionally large scaleis the Department of Defense program, Project Gne Hundred Thousand.The purpose of this program was W employ modern instructional tech-niques in qualifying for the armed forces men who were below estab-lished standards. As a result, 95 per cent of these below-par men satis-factorily completed basic training, although 13 per cent of them requiredextra or special training. Even in the formal skill courses the rate ofsuccess was high-87 per cent. Of the original number, 63 per cent en-tered technical specialties. The rate of separation from military serviceafter twenty-two months for those adn [Red to the program was 12.2 percent as against a 6.6 per cent separation rate for a control group.2

The particular significance of this program is that it is perhapsthe only total effort to educate the disadvantaged. Here the militaryservices generated and coordinated joint: efforts comprising the elementswe have advocated for such an endeavor: housing, clothing, food, sub-sistence, medical aid, entertainment. The question is, how .:an we pro-duce this type of comprehensive' program in an urban setting under civil-ian management?

2 /From the initiation of the project in October 1966 through December 1970. 313,800men in the military se.-vices had received special training. The program includes basicMcrae) courses and formal classroom instruction as well as on-the-job training in tech-nical skihs having relevance to civilian occupations: see C1.S. Department of Defense.lance of the Secretary. l'coject One Iluoidred 7lruucau d: Cliaractelictics and Perform-afire of New Stonc'orils" f 9 (Washington. D.C.: December 1969).

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Full-scale Models for Study

In our policy statement on Innovation in Education: New Direc-tions for the American School, we firmly advocated a strong nationalprogram of research and development in education.

The progress of the schools over the last few years has clearlyexhibited the worth of educational research and development.Much has been learned about relating subject matter to instruc-tional goals, refining the techniques of explanation, cultivatingthe capacity for discovery, and defining other aspects of the learn-ing process. But much more nccds to be known if the schools areto continue to move all -.ad. Better techniques must be developedfor disseminating such knowledge and applying it in actual in-struction. Both basic and applied research are necessary if falsestarts, blind alleys, and wasted time arc to be avoided.

Continued research is necessary, not only in the areas alreadycited, such as infant development, but also in social organization andsocial change. For the improvement of education for the disadvantagedrequires more than merely coping with the environment, however suc-cessfully; it requires changing the environment itself. Here is a largearray of problems which includes the difficult area of personal and socialvalues; but unless we are prepared to attack these problems equippedwith reliable knowledge of human behavior, the chances for real successare low.

Among the matters demanding the attention of competent studyare the organization, management, and financing of the schools. Ourmethods of financing the schools arc often antiqut: :d, and our techniquesof school organization and administration have failed to keep pace withthe growing complexities f institutional life and the advancement ofmanagement principles.

We agree fully with the federal Commission on InstructionalTechnology in its report to the President when it says, "Education hastong needed a national research effort, commensurate with those in agri-culture and health, focused on the improvement of learning and teaching.Now is the prime moment to bring all available resources to bear instrengthening educational research, development, and innovation, whichfor far too long have commanded insufficient funds and talent."'

3/11 S. Commission on Instructional Technology, To Improve Learning, p. 43.

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In urging continuing research in educational problems, we recog-nize that research findings are of practical value only if they are effec-tively applied in developments which clearly exhibit their value in im-proving education. The results of research must be tried and tested andeventually packaged in forms which make them available for actual usein schools or homes. The value of educational research lies not simply inthe increase of knowledge but in the practical application of that knowl-edge in improving learning. A variety of techniques can be employed ineffectively disseminating research findings, ranging from informationcenters and demonstration classrooms or laboratories to selected schooldistricts employed as full-scale models for study.*

It is this latter concept particularlythe use of full-scale models,perhaps on the order of Project One Hundred Thousandthat we believehas the. greatest potential for bringing into play and testing many of thepromising ideas developed through research. We strongly urge the devel-opment of social and educational laboratoriescoordinated communityprograms involving not only educational institutions but other public andprivate social agencieson a scale that is large enough to provide anenvironment for the disadvantaged and in which effective educationalpractices not only can be sorted out but also employed with a real possi-bility of success.

*See Memorandum by MR, DANIEL PARKER, page 81.

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Memorandaof Comment,

Reservation, orDissent

Page 9By ALLAN SPROUL:

Success is a word with connotations in our society which nowappear to be alienating many middle and upper income youth. Whilethis policy statement is specifically concerned with the education of theurban disadvantaged it should not, even by implication, suggest a lackof awareness of the need for some restructuring of our whole educationalsystem.

Page 10By DANIEL PARKER:

The decision to limit these studies mainly to large city disadvan-taged children and youth omits other disadvantaged groups warrantingspecific study. One oc these is education for the urban disadvantagedadult, whose job training has been found to be substantially impeded bylack of basic education.

The other group. omitted by definition, is the rural and non-metropolitan disadvantaged. They are gernthe to these studies not onlybecause of their special educational needs, per se, but as well becausesuccess in attaining the objectives of this study will augment an alreadyburdensome problem of one-way migration from rural to metropolitanareas.

Page /4By ALLAN SPROUL:

There are a lot of raisins in this pudding. but they are encased ina mélange of noble intention and good advice without adequate consid-eration of priorities or means, Whatever the educational value of thestatement may be in an area in which many studies have been and arebeing made, the thrust toward effective action is diffuse and weak.

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Page 14By PHILIP SPORN:

I cannot agree elat preschooling is desirable for all children andwould like to change "is" in the first line to "may be." Certainly in manyfamilies, what preschooling can do for a child can be and is b1/4.ing donemuch better by the father and mother.

Page 15By PHILIP SPORN:

I am not sure that education alone can provide children and youthwith a sense of community and a comprehension of the world of work.

believe that education can provide a very important part of this, but ifthe family background is one that rejects the community and rejects work,then a good deal of the potential effects of education is mit going tobe realized.

Page 18 By PHILIP SPORN:

I strongly endorse these two sentences. The idea that a child is tooyoung to think about life's work is based on the philosophy of keepingchildren wrapped in cellophane. Further, I believe that not only dis-advantaged but even advantaged children can gain enormously inobtaining aim and motivation, and indeed stability, in their process ofgrowing up by establishing .:ry early in life some preliminary objectives;i.e., how they are going to live when they grow up and what they willwant to do as productive ma ibers- of society.

Pages 21 and 79By DANIEL PARKER;

Explicit mention should be made urging all segments of the educa-tional establishment to give fair trial to innovations even if they seemnot to comply with established convention. Effective participation bybusiness in these special educational circumstances may be hindered ifmade to comply with conventions evolved mainly to regulate the modeand practices of educat;on for other than the disadvantaged. New tech-niques and experiments such as the Harlem Street Academy programshould be judged on their merits and the feasibility of extending them, noton their compliance with possibly irrelevant established educationalpractices.

Page 26By PHILIP SPORN

I would like to expand this by removing the eriod after 'future"and adding "a better future than their present."

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Page 30By PHILIP SPORN:

I believe that the concept developed is one that is based on veryperceptive insight into a facet of the life of children who are forced togrow up under disadvantaged circumstances. The fact that they can betaught to understand that being disadvantaged, while not something fora child to choose as an atmosphere in which to grow up, still can becapitalized in one's development is a very important idea and can additnmeasureably to the drive of a person who starts disadvantaged to com-pletely change his social and economic position.

Page 3 / By PHILIP SPORN:

While 1 cannot take issue with this recommendation, it seems tome it stops too soon. The whole statement is keyed to the concept of asocietygiving something to the children of ethnic minorities. But a societythat is prepared to do that very thing can receive a great deal also. Whatof the advantage that can accrue to a society from perceiving and devel-oping respect for the group values of the ethnic minorities in its midst,which will broaden the outlook of the ethnic majority and give it a betterunderstanding of the richness of American life and a greater pride in thatlife which can give solid substance to the American dream.

Page 41By PHILIP SPORN:

The important point in connection with giving a child a solidfeeling for the world of work and the individual's rclationship to it,which is desirable for all children, has a particular value in very earlygiving the child orientation. whereas children who do riot receive thisoccupy a sort of unstable, floating position in society. From the recordof lamentable campus disturbances ov,-:r the past few years, it is quiteclear that those young men and women who were properly orientedrind this was particularly true of students in the law, business, medical,and engineering schools singly did not participate in campus burningsand had no desire to see their campuses burned. The reason for that wasthey were much more grown up. and they s)mpathetically evaluatedwhat the college and unirmity were doing to contribute to the comple-tion of the first part of their education to be abie to take their place in aproductive world.

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Appendix AThe Poor in the Cit!os

PONTRIY in the United Stat, is officiallymeasured t.), a fixed standard of real income based on the cost of a mini rvial humandiet. Any household is officially defined as "poor" by the Social SC:Cjriiy ,N dm istra-tion if its annual money income is less than three times the cost (in co reto prices)of a minMal diet for the persons in that household.' The "poverty level incon, fora four-person (nonfarm) household was $3,553 in 1968 and $3,743 in 1969 Whenthe figure is officially revised for 1970, taking price increases into account, it will beabout $3,950.

The concept of poverty is obviously complex and controversial, so all statis-tics concerning it must be used and interpreted with caution. Economic disadvantageis quite commonly accompanied by various forms of social, educational. and culturaldisadvantage. The objective of this policy statement is to attack the total problemthrough the impro% eroent of education, Our use of an inecnic approach to disadvantage is for convenience and in recognition of the centrality of the economic factor.

According to the government definition of pc.verty, there en.' 24.3 millionpoor persons in the United States in 1969. The poor arc disproportionately membersof minority ethnic groups, though pruise census data for most of these groups areimpossible to obtain. The number of nonwhite pour in 1969 was 7.6 million, of whom7.2 million were black and the other 400,000 were mainly American Indians, Japa-nese, and Chinese. The number of poor whites totalled 16.7 million in 1969, andthere are only rough indications of the ethnic composition of this group.

The disadvantaged in increasing numbers arc becoming residents of theurban centers, with the inner suburbs included in this category. Although populationdensity in Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas tSN1SA's) is decreasing (1967-68)for nonwhites ( -8.9 per cent), it is declining more rapidly for whites ( 13.5 percent).' Those who can afford to do so are moving in incroasing numbers to the outersuburbs or to high-priced apartments. Moreover. the number of city dwellers whosend their children to private schools is increasing.

A clear indicator of the relation of urban residence to disadvantne was arecent study showing the median income per family in one large city to be a functionof the distance of residence from the central business district. At the six-mile limit,the city limit, and the suburban limit. median income increases over a span of a fewyears were 3 per cent. 5 per cent, and 37 per cent respectively. Considering that thecost of living rose 12 per cent during the reported period...lass netion clearlybecame more closely. :elated to location of domicile.'

It appears that there is presently a slowdown of rural to urban migrationamong blacks. Although the major trends in comparison to whiles continues. the 1969intereensus statistics show dramatic decreases in this mate of black migration. The

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number of blacks now rti.5vints, to the central cities from rural areas is estimated at100,000 per year as compared to 370,000 per year before 1966.4 Furthermore, themean annual percentage change in suburban population (including inner suburbs)ft); blacks was 8 per cent compared to 2 per c !.in for whites. Blacks finally appear tobe moving throughout metropolitan areas just as other ethnic immigrants have donein the past.5 Nevertheless. 43 per cent of poor blacks resided in central cities com-pared to 25 pe- cent of poor whites. Within SMSA's the poverty rate of blacks wasthree times that of wnites and in actual numbers, poor blacks represented a largerpercentage of the poor, increasing from 57 to 66 per cent in SMSA's of over 1 millionpersons.6

But it is the rapid nature of the change rather than the absolute statistics thathas eaused the nation's major social problems. In less than half a century, Americanblacks have been transformed from a predominantly rural class to a group that is70 per cent urban.' During the decade of the 1950's, two million whites left the cityand two million blacks took their places.` In the two years 1968-69, white migrationto the suburbs grew one-half million per year, up from 148,000 per year before1966? Since 1940, the black population in New York City has increased two andone-half times to 14 per cent of the total; in Philadelphia, two times to 26 per cent;in Detroit, three times to 29 per cent; in Los Angeles, six times, from 75,000 to465,000."

There is evidence of sonic improvement in the position of the disadvantagedminorities relative to that of the advantaged majority. In icgard to educationalattainment at the secondary level, the latest available data, although fragmented,show certain gains for blacks. By 1969, 61 per cent of all blacks between the agesof twenty-five and twenty-nine in metropolitan areas had graduated from high school,as compared ith 42 per cent in 1960. The median years of school completed bywhites and blacks had closed by 1969 to 12.7 and 12.3 respectively; in 1960. thefigures were 12.4 years for whites and 11.4 for blacks." The narrowing of the gapover the years is demonstrated by ether data showing that in 1940 the difference ineducational attainment between nonwhite and white men was 3.3 years, that for non-white and white womer. was 2.7 years.'2

But the higher education picture for blacks is far less encouraging. In 1960,tlie percentage of blacks who had graduated from college almost equalled the whiterate of twenty years earlier. The 1969 data give rise to added pessimism; the per-centage of blacks who have graduated from college had risen from only 5 to 7 percent since 1960, while the white rate had risen from 14 to 19 per cent."

Though the gap in median incomes between whites and blacks by educa-tional level has diminished at all levels, blacks ,most uniformly have ii.comcs only75 per cent that of whites," Nevertheless, between 1960 and 1969 the median in-come of black families has almost doubled. In 1960, only 0.6 per cent of thesefamilies earned $15,000 and over as compared with 8.3 per cent in 1969: and thepercentage of black families with incomes between $10,000 and $15.000 rose from4.3 in 1960 to 15.5 in 1969." But in the poverty group, where the median deficitbelow the poverty threshold was 5991, the income gap for blacks was $1,260 com-pared to a deficit of $907 for whites.

The income gains for nonwhites an he attributed almost entirely to geographicredistribution. From a relative point of view, there would appear to have been nodecline in nonwhite poverty in the twenty years prior to 1966. On an absolute scale.from 1959 1) 1969, white poverty dropped 41 per cent compared to a drop of 27per cent for blacks. Poverty among members of other minority groups declined byabont 20 per cent during the decade."

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Appendix BPlight of the Mexican-Americans

IN recent years there has been a massivemigration of other minority groups besides blacks into metropolitan areas. Since1940, the Puerto Rican minority in New York City has increased sevenfold to700,000," and nearly 40 per cent of the American Indians are now estimated to livein urbar areas. Particularly significant has been the migration of Mexican-Americans,who ha ,7e moved in very large numbers into the cities of the Midwest as well as theSouthwest and Far West. However, data regarding the Mexican-Americans is almosttotally inadequate. indeed, the number of research studies, s^holarly writings, andfiscal appropriations dealing with Mexican-American problems is so meager thatthis area has been labeled the most signal failure in American education.'

Estimate., of the number of Mexican-Americans in the United States rangefrom 4 to 12 million. This wide-ranging estimate is due to several factors. First, largenumbers of Mexican-Americans are known to be in this country illegally. Further,unfamiliarity with the law, combined with misinformation commonly circulating intheir communities about government deportation practices, have caused many Mex-ic tu-Americans to avoid census takers and to refuse to acknowledge their ethnicorigins. lii:ire is also the problem of terminology. When is one a Mexican-Amer-ican?" Tbe c ly differentiation familiar to Mexican-Americans of the Southwest isAnglo-American versus Mexican-American. Finally, census figures tally only thenumber of Nexican-Americans in five southwestern states, even thnuLh very largenumbers reside in other states such as Michigan and Illinois.

From what evidence is available, the educational situation of the Mexican-Americans is a ery bleak onc. The median for years of schooling completed in 1960by Mexican-Americans in the Southwest was 7.1, and for the nonwhite in the region(primarily American Indians) the figure was 9.0 years. By contrast, the median forAnglo-Americans in the Southwest was 12.1 )ears.'

A study by scholars at the University of Texas in 1960 found 708,238 Mex-ican- American children and young people of school age Bing in the state. Of the424,308 between the ages of five and fifteen, 20 pc- 7cent were not enrolled in school.In the sixteen- to nineteen-year-old group of 99,902, 44 per cent were not enrolled.A study in California in the same year found that over 50 per cent of thz men andalmost 50 per cent of the women among the Mexican-Americans had not genebeyond the eighth-e;ade !evel compared to 27 per cent of the males and 25 per centof the females in the general populati -in fourteen years of age and over. AnotherCalifornia study shows Mcxican .'xriericans lag even two years behind blacks inachievement and that their dropout rates are also higher. In the Denver public schools,12 per cent of the Mexixtm-Americans of school age are dropouts as compared to 9per cent in the general ixipuiation.

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Notes

Ma

1/Anthony Downs, Who Are the Urban Poor? Revised edition, CED SupplementaryPaper Number 26, p. 1.

2/David L. Birch, The Economic Future of City and Suburb. CED Supplementary PaperNumber 30, p. 24.

3/Robert J. Havighurst, "Metropolitan Development and the Edu,ational System," TheSchool Review, Vol. 69, No. 3 (Autumn 1961), p. 253.

-1/John Herbers, 'Negro Migration to Cities Is Found To Drop Sharply," The New YorkTimes (February 28, 1969).p. 20.

5 /David L. Birch, op. cit., p. 31.6/Philip M. Hauser, "On the Poor in the United States," CED background research paper.7/Philip M. Hauser, "Demographic Factors in the Integration of the Negro," Daedalus,

Vol 94, No. 4 (Fall 1965), p. 851.8/Charles E. Silberman, Crisis in Black and White (New York: Random House, 1964),

p.31.9/Cited in Miriam K. Ringo, "Industrial Stake and Role in Unemployment Solution,"

unpublished paper.10/Charles E. Silberman, op. cit., pp. 30-31.11/U.S. Bureau of the Census, Trends in Social and ECOPIOMP: Conditions in Metropolitan

and Nontnetropolitan Areas, Current Population Reports, Series P-23, No. 33 (Wash-ington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. September 3, 1970) pp. 38, 40.

12/Philip M. Hauser, "Demographic Factors in the Integration of the Negro," p. 855.13/Philip M. Hauser, "Demographic Factors in the Integration of the Negro," p. 856.14 / U.S. Bureau of the Census, op. cit., p. 40.15/U.S. Bureau of the Census, op. cit., p. 65.16/U.S. Bureau of the Census, Income in 1969 of Families and Persons in the United

Stales, Current Population Reports, Series P60, No. 75 (Washine:;.. D.C.: U.S.Government Printing Office, December 14, 1970) p. 23.

17 /Philip M. Hauser, ''On the Poor in the United States."1E/Charles E. Silberman, op. cit.. p. 33.19/Clack S. KnossItoh, "Special Education Problems of the Spanish-speaking Minorities

of the Southwest," in The Conditions for Educational Equality, CED SupplementaryPaper (lumber 34.

20/According to the government definition, "Persons of Mexican birth or ancestry areclassified as white unless they arc definitely of some other racial stock, such as Indian."See U.S. Bureau of the Census, Srr,ristical Abstract of the United States, 91st edition(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970),p. 3.

21/Ralph Yarborough, Two Proposals for a Better Way of life for Mexican-Americansof the Southwest," in U S. Congress, Conge.ssional Record, Vol. 113, Part I (Wash-ington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967), E. 599.

22/Fay e L. Bumpass, "Supplemental Statemeot: Mexican American I'ducational Prob-lems in the Southwest," in U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Labor and PublicWelfare, Bilingual Education; Hearings before the Special Subcommluee on Bi-lingual Education, Part I (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office,1967), p. 67.

86.

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GECCOMMITTEE

FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTThe Committee for Economic Dcvelopment is composed of

200 leading businessmen and educators.

CED is devoted to these basic objectives:

L) To develop, through objective research and informed discussion, findingsand recommendations for private and public policy which will contributeto preserving and strengthening ow free society, achieving steady eco-nomic growth at high employment and reasonabiy stable prices, increas-ing productivity and living standards, providing greater and more equalopportunity for every citizen, and improving the quality of life for all.

2) To bring about increasing understanding by present and future leadersin business, government, and education and among concerned citizensof the importance of these objectives and the ways in which they can beachieved.

CED's work is supported largely by voluntary contributions from businessand industry, foundations, and individuals. It is nonprofit, nonpartisan, andnonpolitical.

The Trustees, who generally are Presidents or Board Chairmen of cor-porations and Presidents of universities, are chosen for their individualcapacities rather than as repres ntatives of any particular interests. By work-ing with scholars they unite business judgment and experience with scholar-ship in analyzing the issues and developing recommendations to resolve theeconomic problems that constantly arise in a dyrrunic and democratic society.

'Through this business-academic partnership, CED endeavors to developpolicy statements and other research products that commend themselvesas guides to public and business policy; for use as texts in college economicand political science courses and in management training courses; for con-sideration and discussion by newspaper and magazine editors, columnistsand commentators; and for distribution abroad to promote better under-standing of the American economic system.

CED believes that by enailing businessmen to demonstrate constmetivelytheir concern for the general welfare, it is helping business to earn andmaintain the national and community respect essential to the successfulfunctioning of the free enterprise capitalist system.

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